Leader's column: Answers are needed over A-Level results day farce

In her latest column, Tameside Council leader Cllr Brenda Warrington describes the A-Level results debacle as "a colossal mess" and says it could easily have been avoided.

Earlier this month, many of our young people took the first step in the rest of their lives as they received their A-Level results. 

Unfortunately what should have been a day of celebration for many turned into a day of confusion, frustration and despair.

It’s necessary to take a moment to explain what happened. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools have been closed for several months and all exams cancelled. 

In order to provide results for this year, teachers were asked to assess what grades pupils should get. These were then run through a computer programme to ensure the national results remained consistent with previous years.

This computer programme is what has caused the problem, as many young people were awarded grades lower than those they expected and what their teachers believed they would achieve. To make things worse it appears that there was some serious inequality in which grades have been affected. 

Private schools in well-off, affluent parts of the country emerged mostly unscathed, while pupils and schools in more deprived parts of the countries were disproportionately hit.

Let’s be clear about what has happened here; the education and career ambitions of many of our young people were put under threat, because somewhere a computer said “No”.

I am glad that the government has now abandoned this flawed method, and has turned back to teacher’s assessments to decide what grades their students would get, but this has been a colossal mess.

Worse still, it could easily have been avoided. The Scottish exam results, which came out at the beginning of this month, faced the exact same problem for the exact same reasons.

It would have been simple for the government to look at the warning signs and make changes before it was too late. I am also concerned that BTECs and other vocational qualifications are not covered by the government U-turn, and I support Mayor Andy Burnham’s move to take legal action unless all our young people, no matter what exams they’ve sat, are guaranteed the opportunity to show their true skills and talent.

Young people are already facing a difficult journey to their future due to the economic damage caused by the coronavirus, we should not be adding to their problems. This is not how a country should be run, and this is not how life-changing decisions should be made.