Deputy leader of Gedling Borough Council Michael Payne has today written to local MP Tom Randall calling for urgent action to address what he is calling ‘the A-level fiasco’.
A Level exams were unable to be sat this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which meant that students were given a calculated grade based on teachers submitting predicted marks alongside a rank order of students.
But some results were downgraded after Ofqual used an algorithm based on schools’ previous results and individual pupil attainment which meant many students received grades lower than anticipated and missed out on their universities of choice on Thursday (August 13).
The government has confirmed schools in England will be able to appeal against A-level and GCSE grades free of charge, yet the results have sparked protests and emotional messages from affected students.
Now Cllr Michael Payne has written to Gedling MP Tom Randall asking him to urge the Government to ‘immediately sort this fiasco out and regain the confidence of pupils, parents and teachers’.
Mr Payne wrote: “Six months ago, we asked young people to follow our rules, leave their schools and surrender their freedom. They obeyed and they’ve been rewarded with the cruellest and most brutal example of levelling down by this government.
“It is disappointing that five days on from this fiasco, which is robbing the future of young people in Gedling constituency, you have remained silent on the issue and failed to publicly press the government to get a grip on sorting this debacle out.
“The truth is your government has a choice to make that will affect a generation of A-level students who have suffered months of extraordinary disruption and stress: immediately sort this fiasco out and regain the confidence of pupils, parents and teachers or allow scores of young people to carry a scarring injustice with them for the rest of their life.
He added: “Silence is not an option – your duty is to stand up the young people whose future has been robbed by this gross act of injustice. It is inexcusable to remain silent whilst the government creates a glass ceiling for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and a glass floor for students from advantaged ones.”
“I look forward to reading your strong representations to the Prime Minister & Secretary of State for Education on this important matter.”
Gedling Eye contacted MP Tom Randall for a comment.
He told us: I’m very grateful to those students and parents who have written to me. I am also in contact with local headteachers.
“Over the last few days I have been on a number of calls with ministers and my constituents’ concerns have been fed back to Government.
” I’m very sympathetic to my constituents’ concerns and I will continue to listen carefully to them. I have further calls with ministers planned for later today.
would be better for them to stay another couple of terms till easter and put fiasco of results behind them and start again,has nobody thought of this plenty of places to teach them as grades were not good enough to get into their choice of learning.