In response to the Education Secretary’s announcement that teacher-assessed grades will replace GCSE and A-level exams this year, due to the pandemic, Labour’s London Assembly Education Spokesperson, Jennette Arnold OBE AM, said:
“It has been really troubling to see yet more wholesale disruption to the education of our young people due to this pandemic.
“Whilst the Education Secretary has tried to assure us that he has learnt from last summer’s fiasco and dropped the disastrous grading algorithm, we need to ensure the guidance and training being offered to teachers on marking their students’ papers robustly addresses the very real issues of unconscious bias and downgrading.
“Pupils from BAME and poorer backgrounds have already suffered disproportionate setbacks since the first outbreak of the virus, exacerbated by the Government’s inertia over pressing issues such as digital exclusion.
“Ministers must now act swiftly to ensure these pupils are able to catch-up on the learning they have lost and that they are placed on a level playing field with their peers in the lead up to this year’s exams”.
ENDS