By Pressure mounts ahead of GCSE results
Pressure is mounting on the government to resolve the exam grades crisis, just days before GCSE results are due out on Thursday.
Calls for action are mounting today (Monday) after it was revealed that GCSE students in Northern Ireland will have their results decided based on teachers’ predictions, after the controversial moderating system was scrapped.
The government faces calls to delay the GCSE results, change the grading algorithm, or use the grades estimated by teachers, after complaints of unfair A-level results.
In England, 280,000 A-level results were downgraded from teacher assessments on Thursday – almost 40% of the total, leading to protests yesterday (Sunday) when hundreds of A-level students gathered in Parliament Square and outside the Department for Education.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised over downgraded exam results there and agreed to accept assessments by teachers.
Students across the UK were not able to sit exams as normal this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, GCSE results are due to be published for more than 600,000 year 11 pupils in England and 100,000 older students aiming for crucial passes in maths and English that qualify them for further training or study.
Tory MPs reported that they were receiving large numbers of complaints from frustrated constituents, with more expected to flood in after the GCSE results.
Ken Baker, a Tory peer and the former education secretary under Margaret Thatcher, has called for GCSE results to be delayed to allow an overhaul.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green said there was still time for the algorithm to be “tweaked” to be made fairer for GCSE students.
She told Sky News there had been a “completely chaotic response to this crisis”, urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “get off his holiday” and take direct command.
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