In a time of crisis, we can rely on the government to be wholly unpredictable and offer no respite whatsoever.
This year saw almost 40% of A-Level grades marked down from the teachers’ predictions by an Ofqual algorithm.
Given the outcry over the past few days, it was to be expected that the government would announce a U-turn decision, and it did exactly that this afternoon.
Since the A-Level results were announced, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have all followed suit and allowed for student’s grades to be based on teacher’s predictions rather than on an algorithm that is based on the school’s previous results.
Despite promising not to make a U-turn regarding the state of exam results, the chairman of Ofqual, Roger Taylor, has apologised and stated that grades would instead be based on the ‘centre assessment grades’ from teachers.
For many students, this announcement may offer little relief as many have already been rejected from their chosen universities based on their low grades.
Lancaster University has released a statement telling students that they will be advised on how to proceed following this recent announcement as its likely that this will lead to a re-thinking of university acceptance rates.
Following this statement, Lancaster have also released a statement regarding the status of those joining the university through the Clearing process.
Following this afternoon’s announcement, Lancaster University have swiftly put together a further statement regarding those accepted through Clearing and Adjustment circumstances.
Amidst this grade crisis however, it appears that those receiving BTEC and CTEC have been lost in the chaos of A-Level results. Where individuals studying A-Levels and BTECs were meant to receive results on the same day – Thursday 13th August – those with pending BTEC results are yet to find out their results.
Although the exam board for these vocational qualifications, Pearson, have promised to release results as soon as possible and communicate with universities on behalf of affected students, it seems that the opportunities for those who have studied vocational subjects are thin on the ground.
This is a developing story.
