WATCH: Exam grading system “not fit for purpose”, says Labour’s Kate Green

Labour’s education lead Kate Green has described the replacement exam results system being used in the Covid-19 crisis as “not fit for purpose” after the government announced last-minute changes.

It was revealed last night, less than two days before the first results are released, that there would be a “triple lock” process for A-Level and GCSE students who are not happy with their calculated grades.

Pupils will be able to choose between accepting their calculated grade, resitting their exams in the autumn, and going through an appeals process to replace their grade with a previous mock exam result.

The Shadow Education Secretary said: “I don’t think this is a perfect answer at all to what is now becoming a really chaotic situation and very, very worrying for students – the day before getting their results, finding the system changing again.”

Green highlighted that there is no consistency between mock exams, with levels of difficulty varying from school to school, and that not all students will have taken mock exams as some were cancelled due to Covid.

“What we’ve now got is a system which clearly is not looking fit for purpose. The government itself is acknowledging that by announcing more and more changes to it. But the solution they’re now proposing really isn’t strong enough.

“That’s why we think that students absolutely need to have a proper robust appeals process, so that they’re not dependent on systems that may not fairly reflect the work that they’ve done.”

Asked whether mock results should be excluded from the new system, Green replied: “I don’t think the mock exams are a sufficient answer if that’s the basis on which the grade is going to be awarded.”

On the option of resits, the Shadow Education Secretary said it was “useful… as a backstop” but would be too late for students wanting to start courses in September. She also highlighted that schools needed support to organise them.