Gavin Williamson has performed a big U-turn today and announced that pupils in England receiving A level and GCSE results this year will be awarded their teacher-assessed grades, to avoid any student being downgraded by an algorithm.
In a statement this afternoon, the Education Secretary said:
‘We worked with Ofqual to construct the fairest possible model, but it is clear that the process of allocating grades has resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process’.
Williamson added that he is ‘sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve.’
That’s probably for the best, because the education secretary has not exactly been a bastion of certainty himself this past week. In fact before this U-turn today, Williamson had defended his decision to downgrade around 40 per cent of this year’s A level marks several times.
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