Ministers today insisted their GCSE and A-Level exam replacement plan is the ‘best we can do’ despite claims an expert has quit warning of an even more dire outcome than last year’s hated algorithm

Ministers today insisted their GCSE and A-Level exam replacement plan is the ‘best we can do’ despite claims an expert has quit warning of an even more dire outcome than last year’s hated algorithm.

Schools minister Nick Gibb confirmed that teachers will have control over the marks their pupils get, but insisting there will be ‘protective measures’ and ‘quality assurance processes’.

But he admitted that the new arrangements are far from ideal amid the pandemic, saying in a round of interviews: ‘It’s the best we can do other than exams.’ 

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who previously said exams would be cancelled for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus crisis, will unveil the full details in the Commons later today.

But the plans have already come under heavy fire. Sir Jon Coles, a former director general at the Department for Education (DfE) apparently resigned from the Ofqual committee advising on exams last month, and is now accusing the Government of risking an outcome ‘much worse than last year’.

Experts warned that the new emphasis on ‘trusting teachers’ completely with determining results risked jeopardising the credibility of the qualifications and could lead to soaring grades with little consistency.

Tory MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Commons Education Committee, said inflated marks were ‘baked in’ and the system will be like the ‘wild west’. 

Others warned of an avalanche of appeals as families in England will have far fewer restrictions on challenges than usual, while the Education Policy Institute (EPI) said that without proper guidance for schools on how to benchmark grades against previous years there could be huge ‘inconsistencies’ which could make it difficult for universities to evaluate pupils.  

Under government proposals, exam boards will prepare a series of test papers for every subject – but teachers will be allowed to choose whether or not to use them to inform their predicted grades.

Teachers can decide to rely on previous essays, coursework, mocks or any other type of classwork if they wish – and dạy làm bánh á âu can also choose to set their own ‘mini-exams’, either of their own making or using exam board questions.   

However, students will not need to take the papers under exam conditions, while teachers will also be able to decide whether they are taken at home or at school. Grading decisions will only be altered by exam boards in rare cases where malpractice or questionable standards are exposed.

Exam board Ofqual is expecting a deluge of appeals over the teacher grades, with results days for both A-levels and GCSEs moved to earlier in August so administrators have more time to process requests for grade reviews in time for university admissions deadlines.  

There is also expected to be a ‘whistleblower’ system for people to raise concerns about results at a school. 

Mr Gibb told BBC Breakfast: ‘Teachers will be required to produce the evidence and the second layer of quality assurance is checking by the exam boards.

‘So if the grades when they are submitted, if in a particular school they look very out of line with the achievements of that school in the past, that will be a signal for hoc lam banh thong dung the exam board to pay extra attention, maybe pay a visit to that school to make sure that the evidence the teacher has collected to justify that grade really does justify that grade.’

Asked whether he accepted grades would be inflated this year, Mr Gibb replied: ‘Well, that’s why we’ve put in place all these different checking mechanisms to make sure that there is consistency.

‘But it is very important that the pandemic does not prevent students from going on to the next stage of their careers, whether that is to college or to university or to an apprenticeship, so we want to make sure that, cách làm bánh lạnh despite the disruption that students have faced, they will still be able to progress.’

In other coronavirus developments:  

• Mr Gibb sparked confusion by insisting masks will not be compulsory in secondary schools, and pupils will not be obliged to take tests;  
• France’s government said it wants to ‘rehabilitate’ the AstraZeneca vaccine as EU leaders try to undo the doubts they sowed about the jab which have led to low uptake despite its proven effectiveness;
• Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper praised Britain’s vaccine success and Boris Johnson’s plans to lift the lockdown, with a front-page headline saying: ‘Dear Brits, we envy you!’;
• Gavin Williamson promised pupils will finally get ‘granular detail’ about exam substitute plan as he prepares to unveil the new system tomorrow;
• Britain might not have to ‘learn to live with Covid’ in the future because the current crop of vaccines are so effective, a top Government scientist expert claimed; 
• Just one per cent of UK arrivals are going into hotel quarantine, day lam banh a au the head of Border Force revealed.