Sidney Stringer academy is a school in Coventry, the city where OFQUAL is based. This year 60% of teacher predicted grades at Sidney Stringer were marked down by the algorithm implemented by OFQUAL. The head, teachers and students at Sidney Stringer jointly held a protest to call on the government and OFQUAL to address this news. Roughly 150 people attended and heard stories of students whose predicted grades were all marked down, some by two grades. This was a disaster for those students who saw their futures ripped apart by an algorithm. Their anger was just.
BLN supporters and members call for solidarity with the A level students of 2020. We further applaud the united efforts of students, teachers, and similarly outraged members of the public in successfully demanding that teacher predicted grades be reinstated. The power and leverage available to us when united in solidarity against injustice cannot be overstated. The victory of this campaign in forcing a policy U-turn from the Tories – despite their 80 seat majority – shows what can be done when we come together to fight for what is right. This U-turn comes as a direct result of worker (and future worker) led organising and bargaining. It brings to mind the youth-fronted movement on climate action that shines a light directly on the hypocrisy and savagery of the ruling capitalist class.
This fiasco is just the latest in a series of mistakes made by the government in handling the COVID-19 crisis. For months students and teachers have been raising concerns about how grades would be awarded this year, and teachers were instructed to use mock exams and work provided before the lockdown to predict grades. These predicted grades would have meant that record levels of students would pass A levels, especially at A* to C. Politicians took the decision that the pass rates should increase by roughly 1%. OFQUAL were forced to deliver this and did so with an algorithm. Fairness to the students affected was never factored into this political decision.
The algorithm is clearly biased and discriminatory. It makes a mockery of Boris Johnson’s empty promise of levelling up across the country. Yet the algorithm is a symptom of wider unfairness within the education system. State schools have seen their budgets cut to the point that Heads are forced to decide whether to spend money on equipment or wages, a decision no educator should ever be faced with. It means that teachers are managing increasing class sizes and are working untold extra hours, unpaid, to mark homework and produce class plans. In this context it’s no surprise that students from poorer backgrounds have little chance to close the educating gap with those students from rich backgrounds, who are able to attend private schools with adequate funding and to access additional tutors.
Of course, whilst living in a society marked by class-based inequality and top-down elitist control, it is hard to envisage an education system that wouldn’t inherently reflect this. The Tory fetishization of “it all comes down to this” performance in end of year exams disproportionately favours children from wealthy backgrounds, but so too does continuous assessment and coursework. While the latter is certainly closer to fairness and would be a positive step, it is not possible to eradicate the gulf between advantaged and disadvantaged students until we address the vast wealth inequality which is a core tenet of capitalism. BLN supporters and members call for all schools to be free and available to all students, for a fully funded and publicly run education system and for exam boards to be brought into public ownership.
The BLN notes with concern that at the time of writing GCSE results have recently been released and are at a record high, with some schools and headteachers considering appealing against them. In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes as with A-Levels, any and all review of GCSE grades must be conducted in full consultation with trade unions and with the wellbeing of students as the guiding and overarching central principle.
The government has promised a public inquiry into its handling of the COVID-19 crisis in due course. Past and present inquiries, including the ongoing inquiry into Grenfell, suggest this won’t be handled fairly. The PCS NEC and the wider Trade Union movement needs to call for any inquiry to be conducted by the trade union movement to ensure the government is held to account for its decisions. This includes reviewing the ministerial decisions on the way A level and GCSE results have been determined this year, which was of course fully in keeping with the government’s elitist ideology around education.
We stand in solidarity with PCS members working in Ofqual, trying their hardest to deliver yet another flawed government policy in the most of extreme of circumstances and we must not tolerate these workers being used as political pawns in any inquiry. It is government that must be held to account, not the hardworking Civil and Public Servants who deliver on their behalf. We encourage PCS members who feel able to do so to join socially distanced rallies and protests for this results debacle, and to write to their government representatives in support of school students.
PCS Broad Left Network 