Gavin Williamson ignored Ofqual’s advice not to cancel A-level and GCSE exams in England, the chair of the exams watchdog has told MPs.
Speaking to the Commons education committee on Wednesday morning, Roger Taylor said it had been a “fundamental mistake” to believe the public would accept results decided by a computer algorithm.
Ofqual’s algorithm saw 40% of students’ A-level results downgraded, with poorer teenagers disproportionately hit.
“At the outset our initial advice to the secretary of state was the best way to handle this was to try to hold exams in a socially distanced manner,” Taylor said. “Our second option was to delay exams.
“The third option, if neither of these was acceptable, would be to have to try to look at some sort of calculated grade.”
But Taylor said Williamson, the education secretary, took the decision on March 18 to cancel exams and use a system of calculated grades “without further consultation” with Ofqual.
“The fundamental mistake was to believe this would ever be acceptable to the public,” he told MPs.
In its written submission to the committee, Taylor said Ofqual wanted to make clear it was “sorry” for “the distress and anxiety” experienced students, parents and teachers.
“We fully accept our share of responsibility in this,” he added.
“The blame lies with us collectively – all of us who failed to design a mechanism for awarding grades that was acceptable to the public and met the secretary of state’s policy intent of ensuing grades were awarded in a way consistent with the previous year.
“To try to deliver comparable qualification results in the absence of students having taken any assessments proved to be an impossible task.”
Williamson yesterday apologised once again to students who suffered “a great deal of stress and uncertainty” due to “inconsistent and unfair” A-level grades.
The education secretary told MPs that the government was determined for exams to go ahead in 2021, adding it was working with the sector to ensure “this is done as smoothly as possible”.
Labour has urged the government to ensure that “a summer of incompetence” over exams does not descend into an autumn of “disaster and dismay”.