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Tories' A-Level fiasco takes turn for the worse as Ofqual pulls appeals advice

Pupils mount legal challenge to widespread downgrading of their results

THE government’s mishandling of A-level results descended further into chaos at the weekend after England’s exams regulator suddenly suspended its appeals policy.

Ofqual removed the advice just hours after publishing it online on Saturday, at a time when thousands of students are seeking guidance on how their grades will be readjusted.

Almost 40 per cent of predicted grades were downgraded by the regulator’s “moderation” algorithm, forcing many to miss out on university places when results were released last week. The fiasco follows uproar over grades moderated downwards by the Scottish Qualifications Authority north of the border.

The guidance — withdrawn with little explanation — set out the criteria for students to make appeals on the basis of their mock exam results. It stated that if the mock result was higher than the teacher’s prediction, the latter should be used.

Labour demanded urgent clarity for schools and students yesterday after Ofqual said that further information would be published “in due course.”

Education unions condemned the government’s “political Punch and Judy show” over the fiasco.

A letter to NAHT members by general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “The focus should be about finding solutions for those young people, not debating the rights and wrongs of a model to save political blushes. It is far too late for that.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We suspect that the Ofqual guidance on appeals has been withdrawn because it is a recipe for even more chaos.”

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, vice-president for higher education at the National Union of Students, said that members are petitioning for an overhaul of the grading system and for accessible appeals.

“The decision to retract official guidance only acts to complicate and add further insult to injury,” she said.

It came as thousands of A-level students launched legal action over the government’s mishandling of the results.

It is led by student Curtis Parfitt-Ford, who said he could not stand by and watch people “getting the grades they don’t deserve,” despite his own not being downgraded.

The Department for Education (DfE) had told students that they could use the highest result from their teacher’s predictions, mock exams or from sitting a full exam in the autumn while appealing.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted that the so-called triple lock would help to prevent students from missing out on future opportunities.

But it has failed to reassure the many thousands of students whose predicted grades were downgraded by up to three grades, and hundreds of students protested in Westminster outside the DfE and Downing Street today.

At the protest, 18-year-old Daisy Dewar said she has lost out on a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Nottingham.

“My future has basically just been ripped out of my hands for no reason, I think because of my class and my household income. I think that’s the reason I’ve been affected so badly,” she said.

“They took my grades down from A*AA to BCC. I had four offers from medical school and now that’s over.

“I’ve had to overcome massive obstacles … I wanted to create a better future for myself from what I had been dealt. It’s all been thrown back in my face.”

Demonstrators have branded the downgrading of results “classist” and chanted: “Justice for the working class.”

Teachers’ predictions underwent statistical moderation that took into account students’ schools, class sizes and regions. The algorithm impacted students in more deprived state schools the most, with those in private schools favoured.

A science teacher at the demonstration yesterday, who did not wish to give her name, said: “I think this is the biggest attack on the working class — probably since Thatcher — or at least the most brazen.

“This is going to be particularly devastating for the working class, including black and minority-ethnic students.”

Unions and Labour urged the government to “get a grip” before millions of pupils receive their GCSE results on Thursday.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner told Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take “personal responsibility” for the “complete and utter fiasco” and said that grading needs to be based on teachers’ predictions to avoid a repeat incident.

The Young Communist League’s executive committee called for an “education revolution” and the end of “privatisation, atomisation and the drive for profit” in the education system.

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