Teacher Estimates to be Used Instead of Ofqual Algorithm
Last week after the A Level and GCSE results were released in the United Kingdom, students caused an uproar due to their results getting downgraded by the examinations algorithm regulator Ofqual.
Ofqual or Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation is a government department in the UK that regulates exams, tests and qualifications in England. It is known to be the exam ‘watchdog’ in the UK. It uses a formula based on the previous grades received in schools.
Upon the release of examination results for the May/June 2020 CAIE session on Thursday, August 13th, students caused an uproar due to their A Level and GCSE results getting downgraded by Ofqual. For A Levels, 40% of the students who had given exams this session got affected by the formula and algorithm. Not only is this bad for the students’ transcripts, but also for their university and higher education applications; numerous students received rejections from their accepted schools due to lower than acceptable grades in regards to their acceptance criteria.
Due to this problem, the government Education Department decided that these grades would be disregarded (unless Ofqual gave a higher grade) and that the students’ teachers would be assessing their exam papers and grading them themselves based on the students’ mock examinations held in their schools earlier this year. Since question papers are made by the teachers instead of the CAIE board, grading and exams can be inconsistent across schools. But due to lack of options and abundance of distress caused by the algorithm, the mock results will be considered the key aspect in the grading process.
Roger Taylor, chair of Ofqual, and Gavin Williamson, the Secretary for Education, issued apologies for the distress caused by the results. Williamson acknowledged in his statement the difficulties students have had to face this year combined by the problems caused by Ofqual.
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Credits: Reuters, BBC, The Guardian
