By Gavin Mackintosh-
British Ministers want grade inflation eliminated from the current British education system and has demanded to know how it will be eradicated. eventually be “washed out” of the exams system.
In a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson, education committee chair Robert Halfon expressed interest in knowing how the current thinking about how grade inflation can be ended. Grade inflation is the process of grades being modified generously for pupils to take account of the pandemic.
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Ofqual recently announced plans to make exam grades for the summer of 2021 more generous In order to ensure fairness for the current group of year 11s and 13s.
due to the number of school closures that has taken place this year due to COVID-19.
It comes after Nick Gibb, the schools minister, admitted that grades may be affected again in 2022 as the country continues to grapple with disruption to education caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Results were massively inflated this year following the government’s U-turn on exams, which saw centre-assessment grades issued to pupils following a backlash over calculated grades.
In his letter to Williamson, Halfon called for a “route map to transition back to the grade standards that existed prior to the pandemic so that we know for sure that grade inflation has not been permanently baked into the system”.
“Putting the merits of Ofqual’s decision and approach on how to allow ‘generosity’ to one side, we are keen to know your current thinking on how the 2020 grade inflation can be washed out of the system once you deem it is appropriate to do so. We would ask that you set out how you see this working.”
Contingencies
The committee has also asked Williamson what contingencies are planned if parts of the country face a further wave of the virus in the spring, and how “validated” teacher assessments – part of the government’s proposals for those who can’t sit any exams – will work.
“We would ask that you share information on how the special consideration process will work and how it is being stress-tested,” Halfon said.
He also warned that the government’s preferred approach to running exams in 2021 “will put exceptional demands on exam boards and schools and mean that they will face additional costs”, and said it would be “prudent for the Department to organise a recruitment of volunteer markers and invigilators, who would be qualified to take on this task, for instance calling on former teachers and teaching support staff to help”.
Under this initiative, the Department “should be expected to cover the extra costs, such as charges for DBS checks and volunteers’ incidental expenses”, the letter said.
The committee has also called for weekly attendance data to include local breakdowns. Since the new year began in September, the government has only published data by local authority area twice, despite collecting it regularly.
“Ideally this information would be collated at a postcode level, so that more refined data are available to show the cumulative impact on students in different parts of the country,” Halfon said.
“Provided this is not too burdensome on schools themselves, this information will help all see the scale and variation of what is happening. Can you commit to the Department collecting and publishing these data as soon as possible?”
The Eye Of Media.Com told Ofsted and Ofqual before grade inflation was announced, that whatever the reason for the modification, the modification system will serve to reduce the real standard of G.C.S.E and A level results, as it will be far from an accurate reflection of pupil’s ability.
Ministers demanding answers also share this view, but there are no easy answers. The UK government is seeking to make sure pupils are not disadvantaged because of the disruptions to teaching this year. This concern and the generally agreed steps taken to address it will not change the impact on the real value of exams in 2021,
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