Northern Ireland pupils to be awarded GCSE grades

Northern Ireland pupils to be awarded GCSE grades based on teacher predictions

Of qual model scrapped as ex-chief inspector of schools says England should follow suit

GCSE students in Northern Ireland are to be awarded the grades predicted by their teachers, Stormont’s education minister has announced.

Days before the results are due to be published on Thursday, Peter Weir has scrapped a plan that would have meant grades being calculated using a mathematical model that took into account the past performance of schools.

The major policy shift comes amid controversy in England and Northern Ireland about the system used to allocate A-level grades.

On Monday the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) analysed 65,000 exam entries in 41 A-level subjects and found the grades awarded this year were lower on average in all of them compared with the previous three years. On average, almost a fifth of students (19%) in sixth-form colleges had been left with lower grades than they would have received if they had sat their exams in previous years, the research found.

The move by the Northern Ireland executive affects grades issued by the Northern Ireland exams body, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).

The CCEA accounts for 97% of all GCSEs taken in the region. Students who were due to sit GCSEs set by awarding bodies in England or Wales will still be graded according to the approach taken by those organisations.

The Northern Ireland assembly is set to be recalled from summer recess to debate the furore caused by the standardisation formula used for A-levels.

More than a third of A-level grades issued last Thursday were lower than teacher estimates.

 

Weir’s move came as a former chief inspector of schools in England said England should follow Northern Ireland and Scotland and allow GCSE results to be solely based on grades predicted by teachers.

Sir Michael Wilshaw said that while he understood concerns about grade inflation, children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, had “suffered greatly” during the pandemic.

“If we err on the side of generosity now, no one will blame the government for that and no one will blame Ofqual for that, this is an exceptional year,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday.

Wilshaw described the exam results crisis in England as “a terrible farce”, adding that it had “affected thousands of young people whose expectations have been dashed and whose life chances have been affected”.

Although Ofqual had been “sitting on their hands” by allowing the controversial algorithm upon which A-level results were based to be used, “ultimately it’s the politicians who have to take responsibility”, Wilshaw said.

 “The great danger for Gavin Williamson [the education secretary] at the moment, is that he’s losing the confidence of headteachers around the country who’ve seen this happen,” he added.

The shadow education secretary, Kate Green, has also urged the government to keep the option of awarding pupils their GCSE results based on teacher-assessed grades on the table in England given the exceptional circumstances and the huge disruption that had already occurred to their education.

“It may be that if there’s no other fair method of determining the GCSE results, we’ll have to look at that, keep that option on the table for them too,” she told the Today programme.

On Thursday, GCSE results are due to be published for more than 600,000 year 11 pupils in England and 100,000 older students aiming for passes in maths and English that qualify them for further training or study.

An analysis by leading researchers has warned that 2m GCSE grades recommended by teachers could be downgraded, with disadvantaged students worse hit than those affected by the A-levels debacle.

The SFCA’s chief executive, Bill Watkin, said: “Ofqual should therefore immediately recalibrate and rerun the model to provide all students with an accurate grade, and provide an assurance that this will be no lower than the calculated grade they have already received. Should this still fail to produce results that are broadly similar to previous years, students should be awarded the grades predicted by teachers.”

Northern Ireland has so far resisted calls to void the disputed results generated by the A-level algorithm and replace them with teacher predictions. However, Weir has now taken that decision for GCSEs.

The CCEA standardisation systems for A-levels and GCSEs were different. While the A-level model took into account pupils’ previous exam results, the GCSE algorithm did not factor in any data from students’ past academic performances.

Instead it used data related to the performance of previous GCSE classes in the schools the pupils attended.

Critics of the process argued it would have been highly unfair for pupils’ grades to be influenced by former GCSE students. Weir said his decision would not delay the publication of grades on Thursday.

 

 

 Northern Ireland’s education minister, Peter Weir, has urged A-level and AS-level pupils unhappy with their results to contact their school or college to work through the appeals process. Photograph: NI Assembly broadcast/PA

 “Having received advice from CCEA and listened to the concerns of school leaders, teachers, parents and young people, I have decided that all GCSE candidates will now be awarded the grades submitted by their centre,” he said.

“Standardisation is normally a key feature of awarding qualifications in Northern Ireland and across the UK. However, these are exceptional circumstances and in exceptional times truly difficult decisions are made. I am conscious that for GCSEs, unlike at A-level, we do not have system level prior performance data for this group of young people.

“I want to encourage as many young people as possible to remain in education or training post-16 and to know they have another opportunity to engage with education. I am also mindful that unlike A-level, many GCSE pupils will not have access to previous public examination outcomes to inform any appeals process.”