Union calls for review into A-Level results downgrading

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has called on the government to review of A-Level results, following data which showed that almost 40 per cent of A-Level results were downgraded.

Due to exams being cancelled due to the coronavirus, students received "calculated grades".

Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders said: “We have received heartbreaking feedback from school leaders about grades being pulled down in a way that they feel to be utterly unfair and unfathomable. They are extremely concerned about the detrimental impact on their students."

Barton said that schools had worked hard to provide accurate grades to the exam boards, following all the guidance. He said they are "dismayed" that the statistical model then used to standardise these grades a "devastating impact".

Barton said: “We are now calling on the government and the exam regulator Ofqual to review the situation as a matter of urgency, and we would warn them against simply digging in their heels, and insisting all is well.

“It is not sufficient for the government to dismiss these concerns by saying that schools and colleges can attempt to battle their way through the appeals process, or that students who are not satisfied can enter the autumn exam series some seven to eight months after they finished their courses, and are no longer at the centre where they studied.

“We have done everything we possibly can to support the grading process in difficult circumstances, but there is a time to say enough is enough.”