Angry students challenge government over 'unfair' results of virus-hit exams

AFTER months of criticism over its response to coronavirus, the British government is facing a new battle -- from students in revolt over the grading of cancelled exams.

Media reports on Monday (17) said the government was working with regulators on how to resolve the escalating row, suggesting a change in policy was likely.

Pupils took to the streets and threatened legal action over the decision to downgrade around 280,000 A-level results obtained by 17- and 18-year-olds in England.

The Labour party demanded a "rethink", and even some members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives condemned the "shambles".

Spring exams had been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions, so teachers were asked to make an assessment of their students' grades.

These were then modified using an algorithm based on a school's past performance, in order to prevent widespread grade inflation.

But critics say the process penalised bright students from disadvantaged backgrounds, while benefiting private school pupils.

Analysis of the Ofqual algorithm showed it to result in "manifest injustice", said Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, writing for the Times.

More than 250,000 people signed a petition demanding a change, and two legal groups representing students threatened to take the government to court.

The director of one of them, Good Law Project's Jolyon Maugham, said pupils had missed out on places at university, medical school and  employer training, which all rely on final A-level grades.

"It's also affecting those students who are leaving school to enter the jobs market, the most difficult jobs market in the UK for many generations," he said.

"That's desperately, desperately unfair."

Starmer sought to capitalise on the row, demanding Johnson interrupt his holiday in Scotland to take personal charge.

"The Tories' chaotic and incompetent handling of this year's exams is robbing a generation of their future," the Labour leader said.

Many of the government's critics questioned why it had not anticipated the problem.

The devolved Scottish government had to abandon its policy of grade moderation earlier this month following an outcry, restoring initial teacher assessments for around 75,000 pupils.

Following that U-turn, London said English students unhappy with their A-level grades could appeal on the basis of their preparatory mock results or sit new tests in the autumn.

But just hours after issuing guidance for appeals at the weekend, the exams regulator retracted it -- sparking speculation that a change in policy was imminent.

The Times newspaper, citing sources, said the algorithm-affected results would be ditched for pupils in England, and they would instead get the result their teachers predicted.

The row only threatens to get worse as hundreds of thousands of pupils aged 15 and 16 get their GCSE exam results on Thursday.

The devolved government in Wales announced on Monday it would use teachers' predictions for all exam results, and Northern Ireland's assembly said Thursday's results would be based on teachers' assessments.

"We continue to work to come up with the fairest system possible for pupils," Johnson's spokesman said, acknowledging it had been an "incredibly difficult year".