Call for Boris Johnson to take charge of A-level downgrading row ahead of GCSE results

Guidance from exams regulator Ofqual on how students in England could appeal against their grades being marked down was released on Saturday, August 15 – only for it to be withdrawn hours later.

A-level results day took place on Thursday, August 13.

Ofqual said the policy was “being reviewed” by its board and that further information would be released “in due course” while the Department for Education declined to comment.

It comes as more than 250 students staged a peaceful protest at Parliament Square in London on Sunday, August 16 in reaction to the downgrading of results.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee, said the Ofqual’s actions were “unacceptable”.

He told BBC News: “That is a huge mess. Goodness knows what is going on at Ofqual. It is the last thing we need at this time. This is just unacceptable in my view.

“Students and teachers are incredibly anxious – particularly the students who are worried about their future. This has got to be sorted out.

“Ofqual shouldn’t put things on websites, take them away, sow confusion. This is just not on and it has got to be changed.”

The suspension of the Ofqual guidance followed claims by Labour that assurances given to students about the appeals process by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson were “unravelling”.

Mr Williamson gave a “triple-lock” commitment that students could use the highest result out of their teacher’s predicted grade, their mock exam or taking an exam in autumn.

The Ofqual guidance said that if the mock result was higher than the teacher’s prediction, it was the teacher’s prediction which would count.

Ministers are braced for a fresh backlash when GCSE results are announced on Thursday, August 20.

Like the A-level results, they will initially be based on teacher assessments and then “moderated” by the Ofqual algorithm to bring them in line with previous years’ results.

Mr Williamson has said the process was necessary to prevent “grade inflation” which would render the results worthless after actual exams had to be abandoned due to the coronavirus outbreak.

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