Results will be fair, insists Gavin amid grade concerns

LONDON: The Education Secretary has insisted A-level and GCSE grades decided by teachers will be fair amid concerns that the plan will result in grade inflation.

Gavin Williamson confirmed to MPs that “no algorithm” will be used to decide grades this summer, with the judgment of teachers relied on instead and any changes made by “human intervention”. Williamson defended allowing teachers to decide students’ grades after exams were cancelled for a second successive year, as he insisted exam boards will carry out checks to “root out malpractice”.

Addressing the Commons about plans for grading, he said: “Ultimately, this summer’s assessments will ensure fair routes to the next stages of education or the start of their career. That is our overall aim.”

It comes as the government prepares to publish details of who will be next on the priority list for a vaccine once all the over-50s and most vulnerable have been vaccinated. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is understood to have recommended that prioritisation should continue down the age ranges, with people in their 40s invited next for a jab.

The move could come as a blow to those who have been campaigning for teachers, police officers and other frontline key workers to be next on the list.

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the plans for teachers to grade pupils were a “good compromise” as he backed Williamson following last year’s exams fiasco. He said the process of issuing grades to students will be “fair” and “durable”.

Thousands of A-level students had their results downgraded from school estimates by a controversial algorithm before Ofqual announced a U-turn which allowed them to use teachers’ predictions. Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee, asked how ministers will ensure there will not be a “wild west of grading” this summer.

The senior Tory said: “The decision to adopt centre-assessed for the second year in a row does highlight the severity of the damage school closures have done, and whilst I accept that it’s the least worst option that the government has come up with, my concern is not so much about having one’s cake and eating it, but baking a rock cake of grade inflation into the system.”

He called on ministers to set out a plan for ensuring grades are “meaningful” to employers so they do not “damage children’s life chances”. Williamson said grade inflation was an “important issue” but it was being addressed through internal and external checks.

It comes after the Education Policy Institute (EPI) think tank warned the latest plans could cause “extremely high grade inflation”.

EPI chief executive Natalie Perera said: “Without timely and detailed guidance for schools on how this year’s grades should be benchmarked against previous years, and with classroom assessments only being optional, there is a significant risk that schools will take very different approaches to grading.

“This could result in large numbers of pupils appealing their grades this year or extremely high grade inflation, which could be of little value to colleges, universities, employers and young people themselves.”