Fears grew today over a generation of children receiving over-optimistic exam results after the decision to give them a ‘triple lock’ on their A-level and GCSE grades.
The 11th hour move will allow pupils to opt for the grades they got in their mock exams was today blasted by union leads as an idea that ‘beggars belief’.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson last night ripped up the system just 36 hours before A-level results are released in the wake of the Scottish exams fiasco.
It means A-level students can choose between the marks they get awarded tomorrow – which are based on teacher assessments and a computer-generated ‘standardisation’ model – or their mock results.
If they are not happy with either of those, they can sit the exam in the autumn, with the Government covering the cost for schools.
But research by University College London released yesterday showed that up to 74 per cent of predicted grades are an overestimate of exam performance.
The study by UCL’s Institute of Education also showed 80 per cent of teacher predictions of A-level outcomes from a previous year were inaccurate.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that the new plan created potential for ‘massive inconsistency’.
A-level students receiving their results tomorrow will now be able to opt for the grades they got in their mock exams. (Stock image)
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been forced to offer an unprecedented ‘triple lock’ in the wake of the Scottish exams fiasco
He added that this was because mock exams were not standardised and some students may not have taken them before schools closed in March.
Mr Barton said: ‘The idea of introducing at the eleventh hour a system in which mock exam results trump calculated grades beggars belief.
Home-school pupils are left in limbo
Home-schooled children face having their lives put on hold because they were ‘forgotten’ during lockdown, a senior Tory MP warned yesterday.
Students studying for A-levels and GCSEs privately will miss out on grades this week after exams were cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
They may be able to sit papers in the autumn but this will be too late for university and sixth-form college applications.
Unlike students in schools and colleges, they didn’t have teachers who could submit ‘assessed grades’ to exam boards.
Tory MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the education select committee, said: ‘It’s looking pretty bleak for these children. It just seems these kids have been forgotten about during lockdown.’
Hannah Titley, of the Home Schooling Association, said private candidates had been ‘unfairly disadvantaged’.
The number of home-schooled children soared by 15 per cent last year – from 52,770 to 60,544 in a 12-month period.
‘The Government doesn’t appear to understand how mock exams work. They aren’t a set of exams which all conform to the same standards. The clue is in the name ‘mock’.
‘Schools and colleges have spent months diligently following detailed guidance to produce centre-assessed grades only to find they might as well not have bothered.
‘If the government wanted to change the system it should have spent at least a few days discussing the options rather than rushing out a panicked and chaotic response.’
He also told BBC Breakfast today: ‘I think perhaps in response to what’s happened in Scotland, what the Government is saying is we need to give another form of appeal to young people.
‘And if what that means is they can say ‘point to my mock results, that shows I am better than my final results’.
‘So long as that’s not automatically guaranteeing that they’re going to get that result, which I think just adds another inequality, then I can understand the thinking there – and I suspect it’s a Government wanting to show that it too, like the Government in Scotland, is being sympathetic to children and young people in unprecedented times.’
Meanwhile it was suggested middle-ranking students could face a ‘lottery’ of grades after exams were cancelled this summer.
There are warnings that similar students could get ‘very different’ A-level grades, which may have a ‘considerable bearing’ on their opportunities.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham said: ‘While teachers will generally have a clear idea of the top performers and those who struggle the most, they will be hard-pressed to distinguish those in the middle.’
And Jo Grady, general secretary of University and College Union (UCU), said: ‘The rest of the UK must now ensure that no student misses out because of a flawed system of awarding marks.’
This week Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured during a visit to St Joseph’s Catholic School in Upminster, London) insisted the country had a ‘moral duty’ to reopen schools next month
Mr Williamson was forced to offer the unprecedented ‘triple lock’, which will also apply to GCSE pupils, after Nicola Sturgeon performed a U-turn on Scotland’s exam results.
Study to be a nurse, NHS tells students
Pupils who fail to make the grade will be targeted by NHS chiefs to plug nursing shortages.
Health bosses are looking to cash in on the record numbers of students expected to go through clearing by offering more places on nursing degrees.
They will send direct emails to 50,000 people and post ads on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, appealing to those entering the clearing system to apply for nursing courses.
Officials hope the stability of NHS careers will appeal to the ‘Covid Generation’ – those who are likely to suffer long-term consequences from the pandemic.
Nursing course applications have already surged by 16 per cent this year to more than 47,000 by the end of June. Much of the increase is attributed to the leading role nurses have played in the country’s response to coronavirus.
England’s top nurse, Ruth May, said the We Are The NHS campaign wanted to harness the institution’s rising popularity by appealing to the next generation of healthcare staff.
Last week, Scottish pupils sitting the equivalent of A-levels received their computer-moderated grades under a similar system to that being used in the rest of the UK.
However, 125,000 results – about one in four – were downgraded from what teachers had predicted, leading to an outcry and complaints that disadvantaged pupils had been hardest hit.
Speaking about the UCL study on predicted grades, Professor Lindsey Macmillan said yesterday: ‘This research raises the question of why we use predicted grades at such a crucial part of our education system.
‘This isn’t teachers’ fault – it’s a near-impossible task. Most worryingly, there are implications for equity, as pupils in comprehensives are harder to predict.
‘Our work shows that these pupils have more noisy trajectories from GCSE to A level. If you’re a straight-A student at a grammar or private school, you’re more likely to continue that to A levels.
‘But this research is telling us there’s a lot more movement around the grades between the two exam levels for comprehensive students.’
Yesterday, the Scottish government opted for a humiliating U-turn and said that despite concerns over grade inflation, all results would now revert to those that teachers had predicted.
Government ministers are thought to be nervous about a similar row erupting in England when A-level results are released tomorrow.
Mr Williamson said England would not allow teachers’ predicted grades to stand, because it would lead to unacceptable grade inflation from the previous year.
He insisted his new system would ensure pupils received the ‘fairest results possible’ after the summer exams were cancelled due to the pandemic.
The last-minute change will lead to further accusations that the Government has not got a grip of yet another aspect of the crisis, following failures over care homes, schools, testing, travel and the provision of PPE to NHS staff.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the construction site of Hereford County Hospital in Herefordshire
Mr Williamson said: ‘Every young person waiting for their results wants to know that they have been treated fairly.
Students could face a ‘lottery’ of A-level grades after exams were cancelled
Middle-ranking students could face a ‘lottery’ of grades after exams were cancelled this summer due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been suggested.
There are warnings that similar students could get ‘very different’ A-level grades, which may have a ‘considerable bearing’ on their opportunities.
It comes after schools were told to submit the grades they thought each student would have received, alongside a rank order of which pupils they believed would do best within each grade for each subject.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham said: ‘While teachers will generally have a clear idea of the top performers and those who struggle the most, they will be hard-pressed to distinguish those in the middle.’
But a leader of a headteachers’ union said it was not helpful to describe grading as a ‘lottery’, adding that schools and colleges have provided students with ‘fair and accurate grades’ and rank orders.
Exam boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have moderated the grades submitted by schools and colleges to ensure this year’s results are not significantly higher than previous years.
Ahead of A-level results day tomorrow, Prof Smithers said: ‘While the national grade pattern and that for individual schools and colleges will be similar to that in previous years and thus seem acceptable, individuals’ grades are at considerable risk of being inaccurate and unfair.’
However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘It isn’t helpful to describe grading this year as a ‘lottery’ just as students are waiting for their results, and neither is it true.
‘By ensuring students have the safety net of their mock results as well as the chance of sitting autumn exams, we are creating a triple-lock process to ensure they can have the confidence to take the next steps forward in work or education.’
Schools will need to demonstrate to exams regulator Ofqual that mocks were taken in exam-like conditions, but the process is expected to be significantly streamlined.
The Government said it would set aside £30 million to fund autumn exams for all schools, easing the burden on budgets already stretched to deal with coronavirus measures.
‘The SNP failed the test, but we have done more revision,’ one government source said.
‘This decision in Scotland was a bad decision. It means that in Scotland there are now students walking round with inflated grades that no one will take seriously.
‘It’s not fair for students this year and it’s not fair for students last year. Our system is fundamentally fairer.’
In Scotland, outrage was prompted by the system resulting in deprived students being treated more than twice as harshly as the best-off.
Fighting for his political career yesterday, SNP education secretary John Swinney said the standardisation would be unwound.
‘We set out to ensure that the system was fair. We set out to ensure it was credible. But we did not get it right for all young people,’ he said.
Only days earlier, Mr Swinney had justified the exams procedure by revealing that without it, top grades would have surged by up to an unprecedented 14 per cent.
Yesterday’s decision means this inflation will come to pass – and raises questions as to how next year’s students will be treated, and whether last year’s pupils will protest.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘They have gone for the most generous option they could have gone for.
‘But the decision results in a whole load of questions about whether other exams were fair – for the people that took exams last year and the ones who will take exams next year.
Anyone who thinks this announcement removes any unfairness is plain wrong. In fact, it introduced new unfairnesses for other people.’
Despite the concerns, government critics lined up to demand a similar about-turn in England.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Government risked ‘robbing a generation of young people of their future’ unless the grading system in England was also abandoned.
National Union of Students president Larissa Kennedy agreed ‘the UK Government should follow the lead of Scotland by scrapping moderated grades’.
Scottish exam chiefs are accused of ‘tarnishing’ their relationship with teachers amid country’s grading fiasco
By Rachel Watson, Deputy Scottish Political Editor for the Daily Mail
Exam chiefs have ‘tarnished’ their relationship with teachers following the fiasco over grades, according to union bosses.
They accused the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) of failing to listen to serious concerns raised by the profession ahead of the publication of pupil grades last week.
Finally there is justice and I can pursue my chosen career
Olivia Biggart, right, achieved all As in her Higher prelims and expected to achieve the same in the final results.
The 16-year-old, from Motherwell, Lanarkshire, has also been studying for the University Clinical Aptitude Test (Ucat) so that she could study medicine. The SQA downgraded her results to two As and three Bs.
Olivia believed this happened because her school is in a deprived area. She will now be able to apply for medical school in October.
Yesterday, she spoke of her relief at the news teachers’ grades will now be recognised. She told The BBC: ‘I am over the moon because finally there is justice and I can pursue my career. I am happy with what he said – and glad he apologised to us.’
She added: ‘The only thing I didn’t like is that students who were over-graded will keep their results but that will all even out over time.
‘But overall I am happy. I don’t think [John Swinney] had many options. They couldn’t reassess every single candidate’s results. My dream to become a doctor is still alive.’
Following John Swinney’s dramatic U-turn, unions and teachers yesterday launched a blistering attack on those behind the original decision to downgrade pupils’ results based on their school’s previous performance.
Teaching union the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) led the criticism, warning that the row and failure to recognise students as individuals had caused additional stress and upset for thousands during an already uncertain time.
They also branded the Education Secretary’s claims that exams are due to go ahead as planned in 2021 as ‘woefully complacent’.
Following the cancellation of exams, teachers had been asked to submit a grade for each pupil based on their performance over the year and in prelims and to rank students in order.
Their decisions were then ‘moderated’ by the SQA.
But the process sparked outrage after almost 125,000 grades were overturned by SQA bosses.
Yesterday, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said the nation’s teachers had been ‘extremely diligent’ in making professional judgments on pupil grades, claiming that they ‘even went the extra mile asked of them by the SQA in subdividing bandings and rankings’ for youngsters, despite their ‘concerns’ over the process.
He said the EIS had warned that ‘overturning these estimates’ using statistical modelling from previous years ‘would lead to an outcry – exactly what has happened’.
Mr Flanagan hit out at the lack of engagement between the SQA and teachers – claiming that bosses ‘refused’ to hold professional dialogue with the profession.
He added: ‘Its standing amongst teachers is undoubtedly tarnished by its role in these matters.’
Mr Flanagan believes the SQA needs to be ‘more accountable to the teaching profession, parents and pupils’ rather than the Scottish Government and ministers must address how the exam system ‘regularly fails children through operating notional quotas’.
The union chief warned that a contingency plan should be in place in case exams are cancelled again next year.
They should have listened to our teachers
Frangag NicDhòmhnaill, 16, from Acharacle, Argyll, a fifth-year student at Ardnamurchan High School, had expected five Higher As but received two As and three Bs. She had achieved four As and a B in her prelims.
Frangag, right, said: ‘I’m really happy with the announcement today. Hopefully I will now get what I got in my prelims.
‘It’s good they are going to review the results that were downgraded but I think they should also review those that were upgraded.
‘I’m hoping I will get straight As which will allow me to apply to study veterinary medicine at university.
‘I’m hoping I will find out about my grades soon. They should have gone with the teachers’ estimates in the first place.
‘The teachers are professionals, they should have listened to them.’
Mr Flanagan said: ‘The current planning for next year’s exam diet on the basis of business as usual seems woefully complacent. Scotland’s young people and their teachers must not suffer the same fiasco again.’
Mr Flanagan’s anger was echoed by Rozanne Foyer, general secretary of the STUC.
She said: ‘There was never going to be a perfect solution given the crisis we were in, but further disadvantaging young working-class people at this time of multiple stress and uncertainty would have been a crime.’
Miss Foyer accused the SQA of having a ‘lack of faith in the judgment of teachers’ and said the downgrading of pupils was ‘totally unacceptable’.
She said: ‘Teachers were tasked to use their judgment and professionalism to predict young people’s grades.
‘A timely and robust process was followed by schools to ensure they got it right for the young people in their care and that no young person would be disadvantaged as a result of exam cancellations.
‘The wholesale downgrading of pupils and lack of faith in the judgment of teachers – who know their pupils best – because of the schools in question was totally unacceptable.’
The deadline for urgent appeals to be made – for youngsters hoping to go to university – was set for August 14, sparking a rush among teachers to speak to pupils and their families ahead of submitting their grades for a review.
Dorothy MacGinty, headmistress of the independent Kilgraston School, near Perth, said the SQA’s moderation process had led to stress and ‘avoidable unhappiness’ for families across Scotland.
She said: ‘The SQA took a whole tranche of results, especially in English and maths, and downgraded them at Higher level.
‘This caused a huge level of unnecessary stress for pupils and a vast amount of work for teachers this week coming in and working through hundreds of pages of work to appeal.
‘Of course, it’s good that we’ve got the decision turned around but this has caused a huge amount of avoidable unhappiness.’
Speaking to the BBC, Kathryn Neil, an art and photography teacher in Angus, said she was ‘so tearful and so happy’ at the U-turn. She said: ‘It means the world to us. It means the world to them.
It was never a fair way to judge us
Drew Skinner, 17, a pupil at St Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow, wrote a damning, now viral, letter to Education Secretary John Swinney after her grades were lowered by the SQA.
Instead of the expected two As and three Bs for her Highers, she received an A, B and three Cs. Following Mr Swinney’s announcement yesterday, Drew, right, from Dennistoun, Glasgow, spoke of her relief.
She said: ‘It was absolutely amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I felt like all I had been reading was rumours about what he might say.
‘It was a shock. A few days ago they were still stubborn in what they were saying. I’m relieved.
‘There was a big difference between what I was predicted to get and what the SQA awarded me. Hopefully I will get the results I was predicted now.
‘A week between the results coming out and this announcement can be seen as a short or a long time. They say the results should be out for August 21. People will get the results in time for university.
‘I don’t think it was ever fair to have judged people’s academic ability based on where they live.’
‘We know how hard they’ve worked. We know the grade they deserve. We’ve done our job, we’ve got them their grades and that’s what they deserve.’
Although happy with the U-turn, campaigners have claimed it was motivated by fears over the consequences of the fiasco rather than concern for individual youngsters.
Shona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said the Deputy First Minister’s statement had provided ‘clarification’.
She added: ‘We are pleased that the Scottish Government will ensure there are enough places at colleges to enable young people to continue on to further and higher education courses.
‘Colleges will continue to do everything possible to support students with aspirations of coming to college, and we look forward to welcoming all new and returning students back to campuses when the new term starts.
‘We acknowledge the difficulties that the global pandemic has presented us all with, however, colleges have been working hard to ensure that they can continue delivering high-quality learning and teaching safely.’
Erin Bleakley, 17, who organised a protest of around 100 pupils in George Square, Glasgow, over how results were reached, said: ‘I did not think this day would come.’
The teenager, who attends St Andrew’s High School in the east end of the city, previously said she ‘crumbled’ when four of her six results were downgraded.
After the U-turn, she said: ‘I think we would all like to say a generous thank-you for not only the apology but the results being reverted back to teacher estimates.’
Joel Meekison, from the SQA: Where’s Our Say campaign, said: ‘I don’t think that it was problems over what people achieved that made John Swinney stand up and change it.
‘I think it was anger and danger over the exam system being perceived as penalising marginalised groups and penalising the most vulnerable and deprived areas.’
A spokesman for the SQA said it acknowledged the strength of feeling ‘among individual learners, their parents and carers – and among wider colleagues in the education system’.
