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After receiving a bevy of backlash over students’ A-level exam results, the government has decided to turn the situation around by calculating A-levels according to teacher assessments instead of a moderation process.
This year, due to the coronavirus shutdowns, exams were cancelled. To calculate A-levels, a moderation system was used and the results were mixed.
Thirty-six percent of grades were decreased by a grade level, causing an outrage.
Students’ anger over a large percentage of A-levels being downgraded came to a boiling point when legal action against exams regulator Ofqual and the Department of Education was threatened, The Guardian reported.
One student sent a legal letter to the Department of Education and Ofqual describing how the A-level algorithm method was discriminatory and unfair, and demanding the algorithm be changed or they would be taken to court.
After a review of fairness by Ofqual, a government decided to base A-levels off of teacher estimates instead of the algorithm.
Many times, students’ grades were based on historical estimates of their abilities, so if they had previously performed at a lower standard, students were punished by the grade churned out by the moderation system, the BBC reported.
A-levels also took a discriminatory turn by decreasing grades according to the wealth of the school and its neighborhoods, according to the Daily Mail.
In Scotland, student protests over exam grades caused first minister Nicola Sturgeon to abandon their moderation system. Soon after, other countries began overturning the exam grades system to follow a more accurate one.
Northern Ireland, Wales and now England have acted in accordance with Scotland.
The students with lowered A-levels were discouraged because they feared losing out on a place in the university of their choice. Now that the A-levels will be determined by teacher estimates and not the moderation system, students have a lot of opinions on the matter.
One student, Emily King of Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, says her A-level biology grade going from a C to a U hit her confidence hard, she told the BBC.
But the grade did more just rattle her: She was kicked out of her spot studying midwifery at the University of Lincoln.
King’s future is still unknown since she does not know where she stands now that the A-level overturn commenced. If she does not get back into her programme, she will have to apply again next year.
“I’ll always know that I was given a U. And I know that I didn’t deserve that grade …,” she said. “I’m pretty happy [about the U-turn] but also a bit annoyed. This should have happened last week. Or even a month ago.”
Another student, Josh Reid, is waiting to hear about his future at Oxford University’s Regent’s Park College.
He’s had to send his teacher-estimated grades to the university to save his spot in his programme of choice.
Reid told the BBC waiting as the situation was overturned was “utterly horrific” and finally knowing that his grades would be changed was a relief.
He said his A-levels were downgraded and he received grades he did not deserve. He called the situation “frustrating,” as the grades did not represent his academic performance over the last two years.
As for the A-level exam grades fairness review by Ofqual, education secretary Gavin Williamson has apologised for the distress the circumstances have caused students.
“I would like to start off by apologising — saying sorry to all those young people who’ve been affected by this,” Williamson said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “This is something none of us expected to see and none of us wanted to see.”
He says he is focusing on making sure students’ grades are fairly represented.
For many students, the future may be a bit unclear.
Thousands of students may have lost their spots at their first choice pick of universities over the way the moderation system gave out A-level grades.
How do you feel about the government’s decision to overturn the A-levels? Let us know in the comments.
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