'STOP DIGGING'
GCSE results could be delayed after A-Level exam fiasco as top Tories ‘urge Boris Johnson to postpone’
GCSE results could be delayed for up to two weeks with top Tories said to be urging Boris Johnson to postpone them amid the A-level algorithm fury.
The PM is reportedly facing pressure from his party over the results fiasco that saw thousands of upset students receiving lower than expected A-level grades after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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An algorithm devised by exams regulator Ofqual was used to determine A-level results, and the same system is set to be used to decide GCSE scores.
Senior Conservatives have said GCSE results should be delayed so the grades can be revised.
Lord Baker, who introduced the GCSE system, argued that results should be pushed back two weeks from their scheduled announcement on Thursday.
He said the algorithm was flawed and had created "hundreds of thousands of unfair and barely explicable downgrades".
"If you are in a hole, stop digging," he told the .
Commons education committee chairman and Tory MP Robert Halfon said there may need to be a delay in releasing GCSE results.
"Unless they have fair appeals and unless Ofqual make clear their model won't disadvantage unfairly, then perhaps this is one route they may need to consider," he said.
CONTROVERSIAL ALGORITHM
It comes as some Ofqual board members reportedly want controversial algorithm results overturned and replaced with predicted grades, reported.
Sources said some members of the Ofqual board believe the algorithm has caused a "haemorrhaging" of public opinion on qualifications.
The board members reportedly want to U-turn and use teachers' predicted grades for students, as happened in Scotland.
MPs have also called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in and end the "unfairness" related to grades, The Times reported.
Using the predicted grades instead of the algorithm is reportedly seen as the "least bad option".
"We are in a position where it is politically unacceptable to continue with the algorithm - this is the view of some people on the Ofqual board," a source told the Telegraph.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has the power to scrap the algorithm, but he has defended it and insisted there will be "no U-turn, no change".
CRITERIA SUSPENDED
Meanwhile, Ofqual has suspended the criteria for students to appeal against poor grades - without giving a reason why.
Fretting pupils wanting to challenge the grades handed out from a widely criticised algorithm were told the appeal policy is now "being reviewed".
The Government were lambasted with criticism as A-level students said they had been "let down and betrayed" by the marking algorithm, bought in as exams and lessons were scrapped across the country due to coronavirus.
Hundreds of furious teens gathered in Westminster today to protest the A-levels scandal and demand Mr Williamson's sacking.
Today's protests follow two days of demonstrations in the capital after an algorithm used to moderate grades delivered dramatically lower results than expected for thousands of students.
Students marched through the streets of Westminster again today, with chants of "Get Gav Gone" heard in reference to Mr Williamson, who is facing calls to resign over the fiasco.
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Other crude chants were directed at the Prime Minister, with a clip showing teens shouting: "Boris Johnson's a w*****".
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Many protesters were carrying placards highlighting the contrast between their predicted grades and those given to them by the algorithm.
Other signs read "trust our teachers", "f*** Eton" and "Sack Tory exam cheats".
Hundreds of teenagers assembling in Parliament Square to protest the A-Levels scandal
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