Students deserve the highest A-level grades

[ad_1]

Writing to The Telegraph, he said school graduates should instead be congratulated for their “resilience and determination” not to let the pandemic be a hindrance to their future.

“Given the exceptional circumstances that we have faced as a country, we announced in January that exams would not go ahead this year — it could be unfair to students, who have already given up so much in the battle against coronavirus,” Williamson wrote.

“However, their hard work deserves to be rewarded with a qualification. We must support these students in looking to the future, because their whole lives are ahead of them.”

On Monday night, the government was accused of “underestimating” and “disparaging” students by allowing bloated classes to flourish.

The findings also mask the disruption to education caused by the pandemic, as it means it’s not clear how much students have fallen behind compared to previous years.

John Nield, a former chief examiner for the AQA, said ministers had “washed their hands” of exam results by leaving the grading process to teachers.

“They gave up the whole thing,” he said. “Because of the criticism they made last year, they have abdicated responsibility.

“Yes, the students have had a terrifying two years educationally, but they know where they are in the clicking order and will look at the results saying ‘It’s not right, we don’t deserve it.’ It is disparaging and insulting to the students to think that they would accept the ‘everyone gets an A*’ approach. “.

The former chief examiner who used to advise Ofqual, the exam regulator, said Williamson’s comments were “inconsistent”.

“I totally agree that we should be as kind as possible to students who have had a hard time, but not by pretending that they all got better grades than they did. That just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

Mr Williamson also hinted that it may be some time before the A-level and GCSE exams return to their pre-pandemic status.

.

[ad_2]