UK government U-turns on England school exam grades after uproar

[webfact]

UK government U-turns on England school exam grades after uproar

By William James and William Schomberg

 

Students wearing protective masks react outside the Department for Education as they hear the news of government U-turn on exam grades, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain August 17, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government bowed to public pressure over its school exam grading system, ditching an algorithm that downgraded the results awarded to students in England after their tests were cancelled due to COVID-19.

 

The government had faced days of criticism after the mathematical model used to assess grade predictions made by teachers lowered those grades for almost 40% of students taking their main school-leaving exams.

 

Students will now be awarded the grade that their teachers had predicted for them based on past performance, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government said on Monday.

 

"I am 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," Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said.

 

He promised last week there would be no U-turn.

 

A snap opinion poll by YouGov showed 75% of respondents thought the government had handled the situation badly, and 40% thought Williamson should resign. Some students have been protesting against the initial results.

 

Asked if he would resign, Williamson said: "I think what those youngsters wanted to see was action being taken."

 

The chaotic handling of the grades has been felt as far afield as Egypt and Pakistan as some schools there rely on British assessments to secure internationally recognised qualifications.

 

The algorithm will also be dropped for results for separate exams taken mostly by 15- and 16-year-old students.

 

The dispute has damaged Johnson's core message to voters - that he wanted to get rid of barriers to achievement and help those from poorer backgrounds and areas fulfil their potential.

 

It marks a fresh embarrassment for a government which has changed course several times - including over meals vouchers for school children after a campaign led by soccer star Marcus Rashford.

 

Some students missed out on university places after they were downgraded several levels by the regulator's initial model.

 

"These were problems that were staring the government in the face for months and the government has been slow and incompetent," opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said.

 

Williamson said he was lifting a cap on the number of students that universities can accept, but it is unclear how universities will handle the unprecedented revision of grades.

 

The Russell Group of leading British universities said it needed urgent clarification on additional government support.

 

The central British government's decision, which applies to England, mirrors those made by devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland on Monday, and in Scotland last week.

 

Analysis of the algorithm showed it had resulted in "manifest injustice" of favouring students in fee-paying private schools, said Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, writing for the Times.

 

(Reporting by William James; Editing by William Schomberg and Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-18

 

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[Phuketshrew]

Muppets. At least they have been pressured enough for common sense to prevail. We had some real anomalies from CAIE. I had one AS Level student awarded a grade E when he was predicted to get grade A. They should have picked up such discrepancies before they released the results.

[Orac]

Several days of dithering and they did exactly what was fairly obvious in the first place and had already been done by Scotland, NI and Wales. Why they failed to recognise this as a problem before it happened, deal with it quickly when it did and effectively communicate with those affected just identifies how incompetent this govt is. Thank goodness this happened when there was nothing serious going on for them to deal with......

[Pilotman]

Covid has shown up politicians of every shade, and in almost every country, to be what most of us know that they are; self serving, hypocritical, arrogant, selfish, ego driven idiots, and not that intelligent, despite what education and background they may come from. In the UK, they are also 'supported' by an incompetent  Civil Service and a deplorable rabble at the Bank of England, who constantly talk the UK down.  I would not give you a dollar for any of them. This exams issue is just one of the many idiotic decisions, or none decisions, that the UK Government has made in these Covid times,  The alternative Party is no better. The UK is a basket case and it deserves to be.  

[Chomper Higgot]

9 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Covid has shown up politicians of every shade, and in almost every country, to be what most of us know that they are; self serving, hypocritical, arrogant, selfish, ego driven idiots, and not that intelligent, despite what education and background they may come from. In the UK, they are also 'supported' by an incompetent  Civil Service and a deplorable rabble at the Bank of England, who constantly talk the UK down.  I would not give you a dollar for any of them. This exams issue is just one of the many idiotic decisions, or none decisions, that the UK Government has made in these Covid times,  The alternative Party is no better. The UK is a basket case and it deserves to be.  

To be fair, this is not a failing of all politicians, it is a failing of the party in power and in particular the Buffoon in No. 10.

 

His life long indolence is being revealed across the whole of his government’s failures.

 

He walks his government and the nation into every mess because he fails to govern.

 

He is However rather good at making hollow announcements.

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

I am 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," Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said.

Everyone will be reassured when you resign, you useless ****

[tebee]

Now the question is what's the odds on Ofqual being disbanded and merged into something run by the wife of a Tory MP???

[RuamRudy]

I am not convinced that there was malevolent intent involved here; the suggestion, from some quarters, that private schools were lifted up while state schools were suppressed is not credible to me because it would (as demonstrated) be so easily spotted if it was true.

 

Scotland's exam authorities fell into exactly the same trap - a lack of scenario planning, I think. Why nobody sat down and thought to themselves, 'how will the public react to this?' is beyond me. But what I think is really damning for the English authorities is that it took them so long to capitulate, especially having seen the devolved administrations caving in much earlier. Did they really think that they could ride out the storm?

 

To me this smacks of a failure to anticipate the effects of the results, a failure to plan for the (inevitable) fall out and and failure to manage the situation afterwards. All in all, another normal day for the Tory party. 

[Surelynot]

3 hours ago, Orac said:

Several days of dithering and they did exactly what was fairly obvious in the first place and had already been done by Scotland, NI and Wales. Why they failed to recognise this as a problem before it happened, deal with it quickly when it did and effectively communicate with those affected just identifies how incompetent this govt is. Thank goodness this happened when there was nothing serious going on for them to deal with......

Politically they couldn't bring themselves to be seen to follow the lead of the minor, subservient nations......tried to tough it out and then, as is par for the course, did yet another U turn......weak, ineffective, poor government in every respect. 

[Pilotman]

59 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

I am not convinced that there was malevolent intent involved here; the suggestion, from some quarters, that private schools were lifted up while state schools were suppressed is not credible to me because it would (as demonstrated) be so easily spotted if it was true.

 

Scotland's exam authorities fell into exactly the same trap - a lack of scenario planning, I think. Why nobody sat down and thought to themselves, 'how will the public react to this?' is beyond me. But what I think is really damning for the English authorities is that it took them so long to capitulate, especially having seen the devolved administrations caving in much earlier. Did they really think that they could ride out the storm?

 

To me this smacks of a failure to anticipate the effects of the results, a failure to plan for the (inevitable) fall out and and failure to manage the situation afterwards. All in all, another normal day for the Tory party. 

There was no malevolent intent, just breathtaking incompetence. 

[johnnybangkok]

I'm just curious to see quite how many f&ck ups this lot have to do before even their most ardent fans start questionaing their abilities?

Covid - well that'll be the 2nd highest per capita death in the world thank you very much.

A Level results - a completely useless system that any 12 year old could have told you would cause uproar...................... quickly followed by utter capitulation.

Brexit - watch this (empty) space.

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, Orac said:

Why they failed to recognise this as a problem before it happened, deal with it quickly when it did and effectively communicate with those affected just identifies how incompetent this govt is.

I think it's because central government doesn't deal with these things themselves, it takes time to reach the top, debate it and then force them to fix it. Whoever came up with this dumb idea needs to be fired, for sure it's not going to be a government minister.

 

It will be some nameless civil servant who's doing his bit to make the government look bad.

 

[ukrules]

4 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

quickly followed by utter capitulation.

Also known as listening to feedback. They could have just ignored any criticism but chose not to.

 

 

[johnnybangkok]

4 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Also known as listening to feedback. They could have just ignored any criticism but chose not to.

 

 

Not when the rest of the UK had done what was needed already. Be under no illusion, Scotland (especially), Wales NI forced their hand.

[brianp0803]

If the schools test scores averages were significantly higher than the past 5 to 6 years school performance , then they should’ve asked the school to submit the evidence for further evaluation.
I heard they adjusted the scores to match the past performance of the school. If the average test scores during Covid exams were 30 to 40% higher than the school’s past averages, they just lowered everybody’s scores to be in line with the school’s historical performance.

[ukrules]

The central government were not in charge of this whole situation.

 

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmeduc/617/61703.htm#_idTextAnchor000

 

The Department For Education and Ofqual did this on their own and ignored questions and advice from the Parliamentary select committee, they did what they wanted.

 

Therein lies the activist civil servants who know that when they get it wrong (deliberately?) the government will be blamed for their actions. The civil service is full of them and they work against central government and ignore their advice.

 

Too late now, it's blame the government time.....

[johnnybangkok]

3 minutes ago, ukrules said:

The central government were not in charge of this whole situation.

 

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmeduc/617/61703.htm#_idTextAnchor000

 

The Department For Education and Ofqual did this on their own and ignored questions and advice from the Parliamentary select committee, they did what they wanted.

 

Therein lies the activist civil servants who know that when they get it wrong (deliberately?) the government will be blamed for their actions. The civil service is full of them and they work against central government and ignore their advice.

 

Too late now, it's blame the government time.....

Fine. So how about the education secretary, Gavin Williamson falls on his sword then?

The buck has to stop somewhere. 

[samsensam]

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

The central government were not in charge of this whole situation.

 

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmeduc/617/61703.htm#_idTextAnchor000

 

The Department For Education and Ofqual did this on their own and ignored questions and advice from the Parliamentary select committee, they did what they wanted.

 

Therein lies the activist civil servants who know that when they get it wrong (deliberately?) the government will be blamed for their actions. The civil service is full of them and they work against central government and ignore their advice.

 

Too late now, it's blame the government time.....

 

well yes... and no, if this is the case then what value is the/a government minister adding if they simply accept everything their underlings say and do, and when it goes wrong says ' nothing to do with me guv...' ultimately a government minister is responsible for the effectiveness and efficiency of the agencies within their portfolio. they need to ask the right questions, understand what is going on, assess and manage the potential risks and have contingency plans in place... this didnt happen, gavin williamson was, and is, fumbling around in the dark

[7by7]

@ukrules,

 

Not for the first time, you are attempting to place all the blame for a government failure on some sort of conspiracy by civil servants.

 

This means you are saying that the Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson, is so incompetent that he has no idea what is happening in his department.

 

That, alone, is reason enough for him to resign or be fired.

 

Of course, he didn't have the honour to resign as Secretary for Defence over the Huawei leak, so I don't expect he'll resign over this. 

 

As he's a staunch supporter of Johnson, very much doubt that he'll be fired, either.

[ukrules]

1 minute ago, 7by7 said:

Not for the first time, you are attempting to place all the blame for a government failure on some sort of conspiracy by civil servants.

With good reason, sometimes they really are out to get you.

[7by7]

Just now, ukrules said:

With good reason, sometimes they really are out to get you.

 

Ah, the old "I'm not paranoid, they really are out to get me!" conspiracy.

 

Perhaps you can furnish us with reliable evidence of such?

 

Not, Steve Baker's allegations in February 2018, though. He retracted those. From the Independent at the time:

Quote

Mr Baker posted a statement on Twitter last night, saying: “This morning in Parliament, I answered a question based on my honest recollection of a conversation. As I said, I considered what I had understood to be implausible, because of the impartiality of the civil service.

“The audio of that conversation is now available and I am glad the record stands corrected. In the context of that audio, I accept that I should have corrected the premise of the question.

 

[stephenterry]

The bottom line is that the UK government is accountable for this mismanagement, as will be the mismanagement of the Covid 19 response and IMO, the ultimate mismanagement of Brexit going forward.

 

And as a final coffin nail, the complete economic recession which could last for a decade and guess who will be paying dearly for all the mishaps? It won't be johnson or cummings, or williamson, however - it will be the tax-payer.

 

Freaking shambolicks, the lot of them.

[johnnybangkok]

I run a business. The success of my business (although supported by many, many people) is ultimately MY success. Equally so, any failings in my business can be attributed to individuals if they are small and insignificant but if the business goes down, it’s ultimately my fault. 
why is that so different for the Tory party? The least they can do is to defer the blame  to lesser individuals and that must mean that Williamson goes. 
We’re not America where politicians get away with murder. There’s standards and accountability. How about we see some. 

[Nigel Garvie]

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

snip

Therein lies the activist civil servants who know that when they get it wrong (deliberately?) the government will be blamed for their actions. The civil service is full of them and they work against central government and ignore their advice.

 

Too late now, it's blame the government time.....

Oh dear, whatever you do don't blame the toffs eh.

Straight out of the, UK's foulest creep,  Dominic Cummings, songbook. The civil service is awash with conspiracy, and the far right will never be safe until a Johnson loving Tory yes man controls every department.

 

Big laugh in Scotland where the Tories who were leading the attack on Swinney (Education minister) fell suddenly quiet when they realised that the Tories down south were making an even bigger mess of it.

[Justgrazing]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson

Fast emerging as the prize dork of Boris'z Gov' .. kept a tarantula called Cronos in a clear case on his desk when Sec' for Defence before being told to get rid of it after learning someone who worked in the building had arachnophobia before getting tin tacked himself after being pinpointed as the source of a leak of classified information ..

what a plank .. he'll be gone soon as even by the standards of buffoonery delivered by this Gov' he's an embarrassment .. 

[RuamRudy]

8 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Fast emerging as the prize dork of Boris'z Gov' .. kept a tarantula called Cronos in a clear case on his desk when Sec' for Defence before being told to get rid of it after learning someone who worked in the building had arachnophobia before getting tin tacked himself after being pinpointed as the source of a leak of classified information ..

what a plank .. he'll be gone soon as even by the standards of buffoonery delivered by this Gov' he's an embarrassment .. 

The man seems to be a classic example of someone massively out of their depth but utterly unaware of it. He comes across very much like Harry Enfield's Tim Nice But Dim. I am sure there is no malice in his actions but there is no sign of intelligence either. When I first saw this clip I was convinced that it was a comedy voice-over, but sadly not. This is the quality of leaders we sadly have in our country.

 

 

[Foghorn]

16 hours ago, johnnybangkok said:

I run a business. The success of my business (although supported by many, many people) is ultimately MY success. Equally so, any failings in my business can be attributed to individuals if they are small and insignificant but if the business goes down, it’s ultimately my fault. 
why is that so different for the Tory party? The least they can do is to defer the blame  to lesser individuals and that must mean that Williamson goes. 
We’re not America where politicians get away with murder. There’s standards and accountability. How about we see some. 

If you have people working against you in your business you will get rid of them ,doesn’t matter if they are bending the rules or not , the pm or ministers cannot just dismiss people for that 

[johnnybangkok]

39 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

If you have people working against you in your business you will get rid of them ,doesn’t matter if they are bending the rules or not , the pm or ministers cannot just dismiss people for that 

Yes they can. It's been done many, many times before (although usually masked as a 'resignation'). There's such a thing as accountability and since this has been such an almighty c&ck up, someone needs to be held accountable. In my books that's Williamson. 

[johnnybangkok]

54 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Yes they can. It's been done many, many times before (although usually masked as a 'resignation'). There's such a thing as accountability and since this has been such an almighty c&ck up, someone needs to be held accountable. In my books that's Williamson. 

And on another note; The Metro, Daily Star, The Guardian, The Times and even that bastion of far-right views The Daily Mail all have front pages demanding Williamsons resignation.

You see the Sword of Damocles swinging just over your head Williamson?.............................

[sammieuk1]

Don't panic Brexit and covid are also safely in Boris's hands ????