Britain’s head of exam steps down after result chaos

LONDON: The head of England’s exams regulator, Sally Collier, has quit after thousands of students’ marks were downgraded for exams they were unable to sit, foreign media reported.

Ofqual chief Ms Collier has been under fire for a controversial algorithm which changed GCSE and A-level marks, making them unfair, according to heads.

It also led to many A-level students losing university places they had been offered, and a crunch on degree places. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson thanked her for her commitment.

He added: “Moving forward, my department will continue to work closely with Ofqual’s leadership to deliver fair results and exams for young people.”

Exams for GCSE and A-level students were cancelled by Williamson in March, just before schools were closed, when the nation was in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic.

A system to ensure pupils could still get their grades was drawn up by Ofqual which involved teachers and schools predicting grades for their pupils from a whole range of evidence

These were then sent to the exams regulator to be moderated so as to avoid more students than usual getting higher grades. The now discredited algorithm used information on schools’ past performance to moderate the grades, drawing complaints that pupils were being judged on the efforts of the predecessors.

Scotland, which used a similar system, rowed back on the arrangement after it became apparent that many bright but disadvantaged pupils were downgraded.

Scotland’s education secretary John Swinney announced a switch to teacher-assessed grades and results were re-issued.

This meant that hundreds of thousands of A-level results had to be re-issued and GCSE results were rushed through to schools to be released three days after the government U-turn.

And hundreds of thousands of the BTec students have still not received their grades after the exam board, Pearson, made a last minute decision to re-grade. The previous regulator, Dame Glenys Stacey, has been asked to step in.