Education Minister issues “unreserved apology” to students in Wales over downgrading of A Level results

Wales’ education minister has issued an “unreserved apology” to students for the chaos caused by last week’s A Level results.

The standardisation process used after the cancellation of this year’s exams saw 42 per cent of students in Wales downgraded.

It led to criticism from students, teachers and politicians over inconsistencies and unfairness in the system.

This week also saw north Wales education leaders state they have “no confidence” in the standardisation of results and feared that the upcoming GCSE results will mirror A-Level chaos.

In a u-turn on Monday Education Minister Kirsty Williams announced that A level, AS, GCSE, Skills Challenge Certificate and Welsh Baccalaureate grades in Wales will now be awarded on the basis of Centre Assessment Grades.

Speaking on Monday, the minister said: ““For grades issued last week, I have decided that all awards in Wales, will also be made on the basis of teacher assessment.

“For those young people, for whom our system produced higher grades than those predicted by teachers, the higher grades will stand.”

Ms Williams has also issued an unreserved apology to students for the stress and anguish caused by this year’s results process.

In a statement, Ms Williams said: “For our young people, and indeed, everyone in Wales, the last few months have been and continue to be a stressful time. It’s been a time of anguish for people right across the country.

“And I am sorry, that for some of our young people, the results process has made that worse.

“That was not the intention of anyone, not for me, not Qualifications Wales, not the WJEC.

“But it is right, that I apologise directly and unreservedly to our young people. I am truly sorry.

Recent months have thrown up unexpected new and complex challenges. We’ve had to take decisions and design new ways of working at incredible pace.

“Working with Qualifications Wales and the WJEC we looked for an approach which provided fairness and balanced out differences in the standards applied to judgments in schools and colleges.

“But as I announced and given decisions elsewhere, the balance of fairness law lies with awarding Centre Assessment grades to students.

“I took the decision ahead of the results being released this week, so that there is time for the necessary work to take place.

“It was clear that maintaining confidence in our qualifications, whilst being fair to students requires this difficult decision.

“Next week I will be making a further statement on an independent review of events following the cancellation of this year’s exams.

“In the meantime, I want to congratulate and to thank all of our children and young people. You have shown incredible strength and resilience during the pandemic.

“I hope that you can now step forward with confidence on something Mission into the next stage of your education, employment or training.”