Exams shambles

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Students demand: ‘Gavin Get Gone!’

ENRAGED students are calling on Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to resign after the A-level “fiasco” in August saw hundreds of students lose out on university places.

With exams cancelled due to Covid-19, 39.2 per cent of teacher-predicted grades were ‘moderated’ down by the external exam board, Ofqual, using an algorithm and schools’ previous results.

After days of confusion and outcry across the country, the Government announced that teacher-estimated grades would instead be used.

As well as celebrating this U-turn, Martha Storey and James Fenwick went ahead with a protest against the stress caused, which had been organised for the following day in Leeds.

Martha told Educate they were now calling on Mr Williamson to go: “The Government thinks that by performing this U-turn everyone will forget it had five months to sort out an exam solution. It didn’t work, and then the Government stuck with it for five days. We need accountability.”

James is also angry that Ofqual’s grading Students – including James Fenwick (left) and Martha Storey (third from left) – gathered in Leeds to protest formula hit state school students hardest, and against the Government’s A-level debacle PHOTO by Terry Bambrook that BTec and vocational students were not initially included in the U-turn. Ofqual head takes rap for exams chaos Fairness for next year’s students

“We’re calling for an end to entrenched A WEEK after the U-turn, head of Ofqual MORE than 145,000 people have signed elitism within the education sector. Justice for Sally Collier resigned. NEU joint general a petition started by NEU member Rafia BTec students,” he said. secretary Kevin Courtney said: “Someone had Hussain calling for curriculum content to be

BTec students later had their grades to take responsibility for the exams fiasco, but reduced ahead of next year’s exams. reassessed in line with teacher-predicted the issues run far deeper than the actions of Rafia, an A-level social sciences teacher grades, receiving them up to two weeks late. one chief executive. in Sheffield, set up the petition out of “sheer

According to the admissions service “We have no sure way of knowing frustration” that students will be tested on UCAS, more than 15,000 A-level students where the balance of fault lies, but we can the same content as normal, despite missing originally rejected by their first-choice be quite certain that Gavin Williamson gave 16 weeks in the classroom. university now have the grades to go. However, direction to Ofqual that there should not be “Getting through the volume of content the chaos and delay of both A-level and BTec grade inflation and all candidates should get in A-levels, even in a normal school year, is a grades is likely to affect whether many students a fair grade. He must have known that those nightmare,” she said. “You barely have any time can now get a place at their chosen university. directions are incompatible.” left for revision at the end. Every year I feel that students are not 100 per cent ready, purely #FairGrade2021 Reduce the content assessed for A-levels and GCSEs next summer #FairGrade2021 The NEU wrote to the Government calling for fairness for next year’s GCSE and A-level cohorts, and launched a petition at bit.ly/3hazC2M to ensure they’re not disadvantaged. NEU Cymru has a launched a similar petition calling for exam fairness in 2021 at bit.ly/3gvXnBt because they don’t have enough time.” Teaching remotely does not allow for the same level of assessment or opportunity to check students have understood topics, she added, and children from particular ethnic minority groups and working class backgrounds are likely to have struggled most with remote learning. The petition calls for students in years 10 and 12 to be tested on a reduced curriculum.