School's out
As a result of the pandemic, school exams in the UK have been cancelled and, for those all-important ones that influence students' future career paths, the results have been replaced with predictions. But, not all predictions are equal. Many students were angry and distressed when their results were first announced, and they hadn't done as well as they had expected. Funnily enough, this is not a new thing
. But what is new is that the results were predicted centrally, using a statistical algorithm. I cheerfully admit to knowing bugger all about the algorithm, other than it gives substantial weight to schools' past performance as well as other factors
.
Opposition claims that the weight given to past results from individual schools had caused
, with accusations of a mass of discriminatory impacts
postcode lotto
. This isn't really substantiated in any meaningful way, but my gut reaction is that the claims are bollocks; if the grades are based on each school's past performance, the predicted grades would be no more a postcode lotto
than if the students had sat their exams.
After angry protests by pupils and an outcry from teachers, MPs, academics and parents, the education ministers of each nation switched - one-by-one - to centre-assessed grades (CAGs), following Scotland's example two weeks earlier. These CAG results are expected to be higher for most as it is generally thought teachers and schools tend to be more optimistic about their students chances than exam boards.
Hannah Richardson and Katherine Sellgren, education reporters, BBC News
But while exam boards are nominally impartial, the same is less likely for teachers and schools. Has anyone gone so far as to compare their predictions against actual grades awarded? At least the algorithm made an attempt to include a degree of retrospective past performance analysis.
School and college heads were left comforting tearful pupils who had lost out on university places, and young people inundated counselling help-lines with fears and anxieties about their uncertain futures. One 17-year-old boy who had just failed his AS-levels told the NSPCC's Childline: "I am feeling really sad. "My friends got such good grades even though they study less than me and it feels unfair."
Hannah Richardson and Katherine Sellgren, education reporters, BBC News
When has this ever not been the case? Even back in the distant mists of time, when I was at school, some students had to work their butts off just to scrape a pass, while others sailed through with nary a pause for thought. And, sorry to break it to you like this, sad student, but this unfairness doesn't stop at exams. School doesn't ready you for the real world, until you get the exam results you weren't expecting.