GRADE EXPECTATIONS
A-Level exam bosses ‘want results overturned and replaced with teachers’ predicted grades’ after fury
A-LEVEL exam bosses reportedly want controversial algorithm results overturned and replaced with teachers' predicted grades.
Furious students have been protesting after a chaotic results day last Thursday saw 39 per cent of students receive lower than expected grades, with many missing out on university places.
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Ofqual board members want to stop using the algorithm that decides results this year after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, reported.
Sources reportedly said some members of the Ofqual board believe the algorithm has caused a "haemorrhaging" of public opinion on qualifications.
The board members reportedly want to U-turn and use teachers' predicted grades for students, as happened in Scotland.
MPs have also called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in and end the "unfairness" related to grades, The Times reported.
Using the predicted grades instead of the algorithm is reportedly seen as the "least bad option".
"We are in a position where it is politically unacceptable to continue with the algorithm - this is the view of some people on the Ofqual board," a source told the Telegraph.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has the power to scrap the algorithm, but he has defended it and insisted there will be "no U-turn, no change".
Ofqual has suspended the criteria for students to appeal against poor grades - without giving a reason why.
Fretting pupils wanting to challenge the grades handed out from a widely criticised algorithm were told the appeal policy is now "being reviewed".
The Government were lambasted with criticism as A-level students said they had been "let down and betrayed" by the marking algorithm, bought in as exams and lessons were scrapped across the country due to coronavirus.
RESULTS MELTDOWN
A whopping 39 per cent of teacher-predicted grades were cut by the computer algorithm - sending results day into meltdown.
In the fallout, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson gave a "triple lock" commitment promising students could use the highest result out of their teacher's predicted grade, their mock exam or sitting the actual exam in the autumn.
However, Ofqual now says if the mock result was higher than the teacher's prediction, it was the teacher's prediction which would count.
It threatens to plunge the A-level process into further disarray following an outcry from students after almost 40 per cent of predicted grades were downgraded by the regulator's "moderation" algorithm.
In a statement late yesterday, an Ofqual spokesman said: "Earlier today we published information about mock exam results in appeals.
"This policy is being reviewed by the Ofqual board and further information will be published in due course."
Hundreds of furious teens gathered in Westminster today to protest the A-levels scandal and demand Mr Williamson's sacking.
Today's protests follow two days of demonstrations in the capital after an algorithm used to moderate grades delivered dramatically lower results than expected for thousands of students.
Students marched through the streets of Westminster again today, with chants of "Get Gav Gone" heard in reference to Mr Williamson, who is facing calls to resign over the fiasco.
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Other crude chants were directed at the Prime Minister, with a clip showing teens shouting: "Boris Johnson's a w*****".
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Many protesters were carrying placards highlighting the contrast between their predicted grades and those given to them by the algorithm.
Other signs read "trust our teachers", "f*** Eton" and "Sack Tory exam cheats".
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Tensions rise outside the Department of Education as around 100 protesters chant 'sack Gavin Williamson' and block road calling for 'exam justice'
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