Government U turn for A level exam results is a Hollow Victory

The A level exam result Government U turn is a hollow victory for the victors. The victors being the teachers and the unions and not the A level candidates. The pressure of the UK Government to cave in and give the Ofqual regulated A level exams on teacher predictions. Not the Ofqual delivered algorithm which was initially planned. Rather they have chosen for the results to be in line with their teachers assessment grade.

This is a victory for the unions and for teachers. Not for A level pupils, nor the Government, Ofqual and Exam Boards.

There is no way of the Government will forget the humiliation. While the public know full well that this years A level results were basically aligned upon the over optimistic grades given my teachers. (see here are previous blog). Pupils will be considered discounted compared to other years.

Exams are not the end of the world. We all know that. But this whole debacle is a symptom of the UK’s education system in the grips of unions and what Michael Gove called “the blob’. Teachers mostly love the idea of continual assessment. Hence the drive for this U turn. While for most pupils who feel their way into the A level courses and who get better and better throughout the course. Continual assessment is toxic. So eloquently put my Katharine Birbalsingh in her debate last week.

Unions love continual assessment because it plays into the role of teachers having control of over the full trajectory of learning. It is unlikely the Government will let this happen again. The rise of non school exam taking will take the Exam sitting process away from the grips of unions and school teachers.