Government Under Pressure To Avoid Exam Results 'Disaster' That Hurts Poorest
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The government is under pressure to ensure exam results in England “will not exacerbate existing inequalities” after students from poorer backgrounds in Scotland were hit hardest by downgrading.
Eduction bosses across the UK are grappling with the first school year without exams, and the Scottish government on Tuesday came under fire after the first attempt at moderation across the four nations appeared to favour more affluent pupils.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon was forced to defend the Scottish Qualifications Authority over its model that reduced the pass rate of the poorest Higher pupils by more than twice that of the richest.
Education commentators said basing results on a school’s previous performance, rather than an individual’s track record, had led to “systemic biasing in favour of the least deprived”.
Now Labour has written to education secretary Gavin Williamson calling for “urgent reassurance” that the same will not be repeated south of the border next week.
In a letter to Williamson, shadow education secretary Kate Green warned this year’s system of assessment following the Covid-19 pandemic “risks creating winners and losers and some children in schools that have been improving are those who could lose out the most”.
Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, cautioned “the system risks baking in inequality” as she branded the handling of Highers results in Scotland “disastrous”.
Setting out a series of concerns, Green said: “All students deserve to receive grades on their own merit and not a computer algorithm. It is therefore vital that students, teachers and parents understand the way in which results will primarily be determined, and how a balance is to be achieved between performance at centre level and consideration of students’ individual performance.
“If the eventual results are determined primarily...
