Ex-teachers ‘should check pupils’ grades’

Retired teachers and Ofsted inspectors should check pupils’ GCSE and A-level work to ensure that the right grades are given this summer, the chairman of the education select committee says.

An algorithm used to moderate grades given by teachers after exams were cancelled last year led to a results debacle and government U-turn. After Michael Gove confirmed yesterday that the

pandemic had also put paid to this summer’s exams, Robert Halfon said that assessors should check teachers’ work to avoid a similar fiasco. “There should be independent assessors of school

grades and moderation of those grades needs to be done by humans, not computers,” Mr Halfon, a Tory MP, told _The Times_. “Retired teachers or Ofsted staff could go through the grades and

check them, making judgments against teachers’ assessments of pupils based on tests or coursework. Ideally there would be individual checks for every pupil, but if not then some for every

school.” Advertisement Head teachers and education experts have criticised the decision to cancel this summer’s GCSEs and A-level exams as families were left in the dark about what would

replace them. Experts agreed that grades awarded by teachers must be moderated to prevent inflation but were divided on how to do it. The Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC),

which represents almost 300 leading private schools, described the move as “premature”. Simon Hyde, the organisation’s general secretary, said: “Whilst it is important that the learning loss

which some students have experienced is accounted for, and that disadvantaged pupils are not further disadvantaged, HMC believes that any decision to cancel all exams in England this summer

would be premature.” Dr Hyde added: “The best way of ensuring fairness is not by cancelling all examinations but by externally moderating assessment in whatever form it takes. We require

decisive leadership and a willingness to compromise to bring about such a system. Our students deserve no less.” John Jerrim, professor of education and social statistics at University

College London, suggested that pupils submit a portfolio of work to be graded by their school, which would publish a sample. “The fact it will be out in the public domain will give a strong

incentive not to inflate the grades,” he said. Advertisement Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said that no system would be uniformly fair and exams should not have

been cancelled. He advocated short exam papers, assessed coursework and schools placing children in rank order. He said that the U-turn was understandable but misguided. “I think there will

now be a backlash against any proposal to scrap summer exams. Many pupils want to take the exams,” he said on Twitter. Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said

that there should be one short external assessment for each subject with schools notified of the area of study. Gavin Williamson faced calls to resign as education secretary after Mr Gove,

the Cabinet Office minister, confirmed that exams in England would be scrapped. The government has not set out what will happen next. Announcing the decision, Mr Williamson said: “It is now

vital that we support our young people at home, including making sure all students are receiving the best possible remote education, and that those students who were due to take exams can

still progress to their next stage of education or training.” Advertisement Asked if he still had confidence in Mr Williamson, Mr Halfon told Times Radio: “I appreciate that the government

are firefighting from day to day in terms of the coronavirus and they are walking a tightrope, but I just want there to be much more long-term planning for education. I think the problem

over the past months is that all the energy has been put into health and sorting out the economy and education has often been forgotten about.” While some heads welcomed the decision coming

now, rather than at the 11th hour, others said ministers had been hasty in abandoning exams because no alternative would be fairer. James Handscombe, principal of Harris Westminster Sixth

Form, told _The Times_: “I don’t think that cancelling exams is the right thing to do. There is every hope that it will be physically possible to run exams by late May/June. “Higher than

normal absence due to quarantine was already planned for in terms of timetabling and the ‘catch up’ papers. There is every reason to believe that any other assessment regime parachuted into

a course three quarters of the way through will be unfair — there can be no fair moderation unless there is a common piece of work produced under controlled conditions.” Sir Michael Wilshaw,

the former head of Ofsted, said that heads lacked confidence in Mr Williamson, who should resign rather than forcing others to. Jonathan Salter, the most senior civil servant at the

Department for Education, and Sally Collier, the chief executive of the exams regulator Ofqual, resigned over the summer. Advertisement Mr Halfon said: “It’s been a huge shambles.” Speaking

on BBC Radio 4’s _Woman’s Hour_, he said: “At the weekend I was getting messages from ministers to say schools were safe, that transmission rates were pretty marginal even when schools are

closed.” He also told Sky News today: “I think now we have to move on and make sure we have an exam system that is a level playing field for students and fair to the disadvantaged. We know

that in the last lockdown millions of students did hardly any learning at all, despite the individual efforts of many teachers and many schools. We also know that despite hundreds of

thousands of laptops going to students from the government there are still hundreds of thousands of students on the wrong side of the digital divide.” Mr Williamson is due to update MPs this

lunchtime after a day of talks with Ofqual. But sources said he would not unveil full plans because Ofqual was an independent, non-ministerial body and would make the decision in due

course. Mr Williamson had repeatedly assured that exams would take place. Boris Johnson has imposed a lockdown of at least seven weeks to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed. The

requirement to stay at home for all but a handful of reasons will be reviewed during February half-term, but Mr Gove has warned against thinking the lockdown would be lifted at that time.

Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England, said that the decision over whether schools will go back in February “really depends on the epidemiology of the virus”. She told BBC _Breakfast_:

“We will have to look at it by year, age group by age group, as happened the first time round, and the final decisions will lay with government over when they want to bring the students

back.” Advertisement Dr Hopkins added: “We recognise that keeping the majority of children out of school reduces those transmission risks slightly more than having them there. Because

children not only are interacting in school but also on the way to school, on school buses, they are having conversations outside, and it’s all of those little things that we are advising

government that need to be avoided.” Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis, which has more than 50 academies, said: “There’s only one way to assess students fairly this summer: school assessed

grades, checked by external moderation. Why? Because individual students have had different amounts of in-school learning and widely differing out-of-school online learning access, space,

peace and support.” Richard Tillett, head of Queen’s College, London, an independent girls’ school, said: “The phrase ‘the education secretary will work with Ofqual to put in place

alternative arrangements’ won’t fill anyone with confidence. Teachers urgently need details of the plans so they can ensure pupils in those years aren’t further disadvantaged.” Heads spoke

of their frustration at having worked over Christmas to roll out a mass Covid-testing programme this week of five million pupils, which would now not take place. Some had hired nurses and

recruited volunteers. All of the more than 3,400 secondary schools received packs of lateral flow tests and PPE equipment on Monday and started training staff to oversee the tests. Lorraine

Heath, chief executive of an academy trust in Devon and Somerset, posted a picture on Twitter saying: “Please admire the superbly organised and efficient mass testing centre set up at one of

my schools today. Complete waste of bloody time!” Vic Goddard, a head teacher in Essex, said: “If anyone needs 6,000 latex gloves of assorted sizes, just let me know.” Nicola Sturgeon, the

Scottish first minister, announced on Monday that Scotland would go into lockdown for the rest of the month, with a legal requirement to stay at home and schools closed to most pupils until

February. Kirsty Williams, the Welsh education minister, has announced that schools and colleges in Wales will remain closed until at least January 18.