Phillipson: Ministers “completely failed” to support A-level students during Covid

Bridget Phillipson has declared that the government “completely failed” to support young people with their education through the pandemic and said she fears its failure will “cast a long shadow over the life chances of many”.

A-level students across the country are collecting their results today, the first set to be based on public exams since 2019. The proportion of students achieving A* and A grades has fallen since 2021 – from 44.8% to approximately 36.4% – though it remains higher than 2019.

Speaking to Sky News today, the Shadow Education Secretary said: “This cohort of young people in particular have had a really hard time of it. We know how disruptive Covid has been to the life chances and opportunities for our young people.”

“It is appalling that fewer than one in five have received any additional catch-up support out of the government’s scheme. We knew right at the start of the pandemic that we would need to support our young people. The government completely failed to put that in place,” she added.

Results this year were expected to fall considerably after the government intervened to address the grade inflation seen following two years of teacher-assessed grades during the pandemic.

James Cleverly explained on Thursday that it was “always the plan” to get results down this year. The Education Secretary said: “Students might get slightly lower grades than perhaps they were expecting and hoping for, [but] I think we should see the majority of students get into the institutions they want to.”

On whether this was the right year to address grade inflation, Phillipson said: “It is right that we do start to see a return to normality, and from the many young people that I’ve spoken to, they did want the opportunity to have exams – there are problems with teacher-assessed grades as we’ve seen in the past.”

The Labour frontbencher added: “It is right that we start to move back. But if we’re to do that, then we do have to properly support our young people and give them all of the help that they need given the unprecedented nature of the disruption that they’ve faced to their education.

“That hasn’t happened, and we know of course that some young people had more time out of education than others because of Covid outbreaks.

“And the government’s totally failure to put in place what was needed, I do fear will cast a long shadow over the life chances of many young people, not simply where it comes to today and the results that we will be seeing, but right across our economy.”

“Our young people have worked really hard. And I just want to congratulate them for everything that they’ve done. But also their teachers and all the support staff in schools. They’ve gone above and beyond to make sure our young people are supported,” Phillipson added.

Commenting on this year’s results, NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: “It would be wrong and wholly inaccurate to compare these results to previous years or make comparisons about performance in relation to previous pupil cohorts.

“It will be essential for higher and further education providers and employers to recognise the challenges pupils have faced this year and to act sensitively when considering their place offers or offers of employment to young people.

“Young people due to sit qualifications next year have also faced substantial and relatively recent disruption to their learning that can and should be addressed in qualifications arrangements and in forms of wider support. This needs to include greater investment in education recovery.

“Government plans and funding for education recovery fall far below that seen in other comparable countries. The results achieved today were secured largely in spite of, rather than because of, the support received from government for education recovery programmes.

“Teachers have pulled out all the stops for their pupils and after a decade of real-terms pay erosion, deserve for their hard work to be matched with a restorative above-inflation pay award.”