LONDON – In a U-turn after days of criticism, the British government on Monday scrapped an exam grading policy that was introduced to deprive thousands of graduates of secondary school – especially minor disadvantages – from places at universities.
Roger Taylor, chairman of UK Exam regulator Ofqual, said the use of an algorithm to predict the results of exams canceled by the coronavirus pandemic had caused “real pain and damaged public confidence.”
“It has not been an acceptable experience for young people,” he said. “I would like to say sorry.”
Universities in the UK offer secondary schools places over the last year based on degrees predicted by their lecturers. Access depends on the results of exams, known as A Levels.
This year, with schools largely closed since March and no exams, education authorities in England rounded the predicted grades through an algorithm designed to standardize results, which they compared to schools’ past performance. This meant that high-performing students in non-performing schools, many in notorious areas, saw their marks downgraded, while students in schools kept above-average their predicted grades.
Hundreds of students protested, calling the results an injustice, and lawmakers were overwhelmed with complaints from angry parents.
Kay Mountfield, head teacher at a school in Marlow, west London, said 85% of her students had received lower than predicted degrees.
“Seventeen of my students did not have their first choice for university,” she said. “Normally that would be about five, if 10 maybe students.”
The reversal means that students in England get the grades that are estimated by their lecturers, unless the ones generated by the algorithm are higher. Education authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have made similar moves.
The same policy will apply to GCSEs, the exams taken by 16-year-old students. Those results are from Thursday.
The U-turn is a disgrace to the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but came across as irresistible as criticism of the policy spread, even within the ranks of the ruling Conservative Party.
“This group of young people has been lost so much; we need to ensure that bright, capable students can move on to their next step, ”Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt said before Monday’s announcement.
Defense Minister Johnny Mercer said there were “clear injustices” in the system.
In Scotland, authorities quickly returned the course to a similar failure last week, saying students would receive their predicted degrees. That increased pressure on Johnson to do the same for England.
Johnson, who is on vacation, held a conversation Monday about the crisis with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and former officials.
Williamson had previously insisted that there would be ‘no U-turn’, although he said students who graduated could take the exams on appeal or retake.
But on Monday, he acknowledged that “the process of splitting degrees resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process.”
“I am sorry for the distress this has caused for young people and their parents, but hope this announcement now provides the certainty and confidence they deserve,” he said.
However, the announcement ended the uncertainty for all students. Many scramble to get in touch with universities to see if they can enter now.
‘I have been waiting for an hour,’ said Testify Anyahamiwe, who is hoping to study medicine at Queen Mary University in London.
“While I’m glad my grades will definitely be higher than what they gave me, I did not yet know if I would get my union place,” she said.
Amy Kirkham, of High Wycombe, north-west London, missed the degrees needed to study economics at Cambridge University when the algorithm downgraded her into two subjects.
Now she has the required marks but does not know if there is room for her. If not, she can wait until next year with her university career.
“It just puts my life in perspective,” she said.
To alleviate the pain, Kirkham’s twin sister came to the prestigious Oxford University, although her marks were initially downgraded as well.
“It was always a shared dream that I would go to Cambridge this year and that she would go to Oxford,” Kirkham said. “She did not feel it to celebrate because I had to have this pain of waiting to know if I was in it or not. That really made me family and frustrated.”
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