A-level grades: System ‘wide open’ to legal action

A-level students across the Province find out their results today following a summer when the usual examinations were cancelled due to coronavirus.

Instead, grades are being awarded based on previous work and teachers’ expectations – as well as a controversial process of ‘standardisation’ that critics say could put students from less well-off backgrounds at a disadvantage.

The Scottish government this week agreed to throw out the so-called standardisation process and award grades based only on teachers’ predictions following a wave of protest.

A new students union for secondary-school age pupils has now emerged with the aim of securing a similar move from the Northern Ireland administration.

TUV leader Jim Allister, a critic of the standardisation process in Northern Ireland, has warned that the grading process is “wide open to multiple judicial reviews”.

Mr Allister, a QC, added: “Each student has a public law right to procedural fairness.”

Much of the controversy centres on the decision by the examinations body CCEA to ‘standardise’ results based on the past performance of schools, a move described by Mr Allister as “manifestly unfair”.

Cormac Savage is one of the students spearheading the launch of the new students union.

An A-level student at St Patrick’s Grammar in Downpatrick, he said using “historic performance” of schools to determine grades for current students could reinforce class divides.

Speaking to the News Letter, he urged Education Minister Peter Weir to follow in Scotland’s footsteps and allow grades to be awarded based solely on teachers’ expectations.

“This really all came about following Mr Weir’s announcement that he was cancelling the examinations this year,” he said.

“There was little to no consultation with young people, the most affected by this, about it and there was little to no consultation with young people about the predicted grades or the system used to predict the grades.

“That really isn’t ok. These were decisions that are going to affect us for the rest of our lives and they had been taken without really asking us.”

He continued: “Justin Edwards, the chief executive of CCEA has said in the past few days that had they used predicted grades there would have been a 10% increase in A* and A grades.

“Young people this year have been through totally unprecedented educational circumstances.

“I don’t believe that using the historic performance of schools or the points young people got in their GCSEs is a fair method of regulating that.

“There is a class element to this and that is one of the main reasons we are so passionate about having teacher predictions used instead.

“The worst thing that can happen is that we reinforce the class divide in our society through A-level grades.”

The new students union has set up a board of experts to provide advice, including academics from Queen’s University, Belfast.

Mr Savage explained how it came about, saying: “I found out about the secondary school students union in the south and the great work they were doing talking to the minister of education in Dublin at the time, Joe McHugh, and I decided we needed to do something about it here.”

TUV MLA Jim Allister said: “Putting on the pupils of 2020 the failings of a school in former years and conversely upgrading other pupils because of the good record of their school in previous years is manifestly unfair.

“It is deplorable that CCEA has yet to disclose the weighting being given to past school performance and that the model used in determining a grade is outside the ambit of any appeal process.”

SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan also urged Mr Weir to follow Scotland’s example, saying: “This was a hugely contentious issue in Scotland and it was welcome that the Scottish government have walked back and apologised to the students. Unfortunately, here in the north, we seem determined to dig our heels in.”