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For the cohort of Gen Z’ers who were meant to be sitting exams this year, lockdown has been particularly tough. Schools have closed down, and lessons moved online. No final exams, no last minute cramming, no chance for students to prove themselves. Instead of the customary celebrations that usually follow results day – with everyone getting together before heading off in different directions at the end of summer – this year’s final blow-out will be more low-key.
The Class of 2020 has been robbed of so many milestone moments that we usually take for granted already. And on top of that, A-Level students have been left in a stressful limbo this week thanks to a monumental cock-up by the Government and the exam regulator Ofqual, which saw almost 40% of students being marked down a grade. The Government is now scrambling to sort its act out ahead of GCSE results day.
With exams cancelled, and existing coursework almost non-existent (Ofqual abolished most coursework in 2014) the original plan was to give pupils teacher-predicted grades instead. It wasn’t foolproof – it still left room for bias and downgrading. Ofqual also had concerns that it might lead to inflation, with students being given higher grades than they ‘deserved’ (god forbid a bit of empathy in a global pandemic!).
And what was their ingenious solution? Well, they decided to take teachers’ predicted grades – which are based on individual ability – and then applied a crude algorithm taking into account factors including a school’s past results and where a student ranks within their year. It doesn’t take an A* in maths to figure out where this could possibly go wrong.
This is how truly, bafflingly shite the algorithm is. Take a kid studying chemistry A-Level: their teacher predicts the C grade they need for their university offer. But because, in this hypothetical scenario, they happen to be in a class of brain boxes, they score bottom-of-the-class ranking. The thing is, the school’s lowest-ranked Chemistry student got an E grade last year. And so according to Ofqual’s genius algorithm, somebody in 2020 has to get an E. This year’s student is downgraded from C to E accordingly. It’s beyond unfair, and approximately 280,000 people were affected by the system.
And Ofqual’s very own analysis paints the larger picture clear as day: students at public or private school benefited most from the system, while pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were most likely to be downgraded. An average student at an outstanding school got more leniency than an exceptional student at an underperforming one. It sent a disturbing message that defined students by their postcode and class. No wonder they were fuming.
In response, Gen Z what they do best – they kicked up an organised stink, en masse. Many spoke to the media about exactly how bodged results would affect their future plans – we heard from young people whose university dreams had been torn into tatters, and the would-be apprentices who had been rejected from their perfect career opening. We heard from students who worked multiple minimum wage jobs to pay their way through further education and felt cheated, and pupils filled with rage at having their academic ability measured according to their postcode.
On BBC Radio 4, A-Level student Nina Bunting-Mitcham – rejected from the Royal Veterinary College after her predicted ABB was downgraded to DDD – told the Minister of State at the Department for Education Nick Gibb that he has “ruined her life”.
Huge numbers still took to the streets and protested, gathering in city centres across the country. In London, students chanted “‘fuck the algorithm” outside the department of education, and set fire to their results outside parliament. Many protesters pointed out that the Class of 2020 are mostly old enough to vote by now – and made signs vowing to give the conservatives their own downgrading at the 2025 election. And it’s true that they hold a certain amount of sway – since the Liberal Democrats went back on their promise to oppose any raises in tuition fees back in 2010, their student vote hasn’t recovered.
Across the board, the latest generation of young people score an A* for protest power. Over the last decade, they have been instrumental time and time again, using social media to organise new kinds of protest without a single individual leader. From the Hong Kong uprising to resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd, young people have led these movements. The Climate Strike protests – which led to a global environmental reckoning – were started by school student Greta Thunberg, and other pupils who followed suit with their own walk-outs.
Since last week, the Government’s swift U-Turn on A-Levels has been rapid and fairly humiliating. Just four days ago, former Eton pupil Boris Johnson defended the grade adjustments. “Let’s be in no doubt about it,” he said, “the exam results that we’ve got today are robust, they’re good, they’re dependable for employers.”
The following day, education secretary Gavin Williamson did his very best Thatcher impression (for a time, he went full ‘the lady’s not for turning’, bless) and declared that there would be “no u-turn, no change”. Protests continued over the weekend, and MPs across all parties called for the Government to urgently reconsider; meanwhile, thousands of students were still on hold to university admissions, with their futures in chaos.
The more that Williamson flailed about trying to blame virtually anybody but himself – the Governmental equivalent to claiming a dog ate your homework – the louder teenagers yelled. And it worked, bit by bit. First he urged downgraded students to appeal. Then the government climbed down further, agreeing to cover all appeal costs for state schools and colleges. Grilled by Sky News, Williamson claimed that he only noticed the algorithm was flawed “over the weekend” – a realisation which proves he has about as much rational foresight as Dominic Cummings hopping into a Barnard Castle-bound car to test out his eyes.
Read more: “You can’t measure ability on postcodes”: A Level students on this year’s shit show
Finally, yesterday afternoon, Williamson did a full pivot, and announced that A-Levels will be graded on teacher’s predictions after all. It remains to be see how university admissions departments with courses that are now overbooked – and students who have accepted other offers or entered clearing – will navigate this unnecessary shit-show. If only this had all been completely avoidable…
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