Concerns over GCSE English grades
Concerned teachers suggest that GCSE English exams were marked too harshly this year after schools reported an unprecedented number of fails among their pupils.
Around 600,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be waking up to their GCSE results on Thursday.
But English teachers who were shown early breakdowns of the marks complained that exam boards had substantially increased grade boundaries, leaving pupils with lower results than expected.
It comes amid predictions that the pass rate across all subjects will start to stall.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said there seemed to be a particular problem with C/D borderline grades in English, with pupils who were expecting Cs ending up with Ds.
ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman said there was “a lot of concern” among members about the changes to grade boundaries.
Blog: Mr Gove dismisses GCSE grade critics
Results ‘to plateau’
“We expected results to plateau because of the Government taking steps to peg them to previous levels,” said Mr Lightman.
“But we certainly didn’t expect anything like this and schools have been taken by surprise.
“We’ve got some schools where teachers have been teaching the same course for years and suddenly the results are way below what they’ve always been before as the pass mark has been moved higher.”
Dozens of teachers voiced their concerns about the issue on the Times Educational Supplement’s website on Wednesday night.
One said that the score out of 80 needed to get a C grade was now a whole 10 marks higher than earlier in the year. He added: “They’ve not moved the goal posts, they’ve put them on a different chuffing planet.”
‘State of shock’
Another said: “Our results have been decimated. We’re 10 per cent lower than last year.
“Members of my department are in a state of shock as they say they’ve never worked harder and this is the result.”
An ASCL spokeswoman blamed the Government’s “constant tinkering” with the exams system, adding: “They are fiddling and manipulating them all the time which is not fair for the kids who have worked really hard and have been working at a C grade level but now may not have got one after all.”
Last year 69.8 per cent of GCSE entries gained at least a C grade, and 23.2 per cent got an A or A* but one expert predicted the pass rate will stall this year.
Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said schools put a lot of effort into making sure pupils score at least five C grades, including in English and maths, as they are judged on these results.
Justify differing results
But Ofqual has told exam boards they will be asked to justify any results that are widely different to previous years in a bid to tackle grade inflation and ensure results are comparable.
The regulator has also previously expressed concerns about science GCSEs, and as a result, exams in the subject have been toughed up.
“It’s the first time it (new science GCSE) is being examined this year so we might expect to see a fall in various grades in science,” Prof Smithers said.
“If you put all that together, I think the results this year will be similar to last year, with some improvement.”
It was reported in June that Education Secretary Michael Gove was considering proposals to ditch GCSEs in favour of a return to O-level-style qualifications, with less able pupils taking simpler CSE-type exams.
The leaked plans resulted in an outcry that it would lead to a two-tier system and thousands of teenagers being branded as failures.
‘All students should sit O-levels’
Mr Gove later said he would like to see all students sit O-level-type exams at some point in their school career.
He argued that a two-tier system already exists and radical changes are needed to make exams tougher and ensure that the UK keeps up with other nations.
Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) education policy adviser Adrian Prandle said he hoped students were able to celebrate today after two years of hard work.
He said: “There is unacceptable confusion today about whether so-called grade inflation has been banned and grade boundaries made tougher. Children’s chances in life are at stake here and it is hugely unfair to make today’s 16-year-olds the victims of political football.
“It is wrong to make improvement impossible. If the reason for the drop in top grades is because politicians have determined they want exams to be tougher, they must explain this to the youngsters who will suffer when they compete in the future for jobs, apprenticeships, college and university places with those a year or two older.”