BRIGHTON MPs have hammered the Government over its handling of school exam results and are calling for the Education Secretary to resign.
Downing Street announced a U-turn on Monday following anger over the downgrading of A-level results.
Forty per cent of grades were lowered by an algorithm based on schools’ prior results.
The Government has now backtracked and says students – who have not been able to sit their exams during the coronavirus crisis – can use their teachers’ estimates instead.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson apologised for the distress caused by exam regulator Ofqual’s grading formula, but has repeatedly resisted calls to stand down.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MP for Kemptown, said it had been a “complete fiasco”.
He called for Mr Williamson to resign, for Ofqual to be scrapped and for universities to step up and help stricken students.
He said there should be “a reckoning” for all three.
“I don’t see how Mr Williamson can stay,” Mr Russell-Moyle told The Argus. “He and Ofqual need to go.”
He described the regulator as a Government quango with “no teachers on board,” and said it was run by former CEOs with “no idea about education”.
He hopes students “remember what the Conservatives tried to do” when it comes to the next election.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, slammed Ofqual’s “disastrous algorithm” and said Mr Williamson had given thousands of students “a kick in the teeth” by bringing down their grades.
Writing in The Metro, Ms Lucas said it was “heart-breaking” to hear the stories of students whose futures were “snatched away from them” when their marks were downgraded.
She spoke of the “discrimination” that left students from disadvantaged backgrounds far more likely to have their marks lowered, and was scathing of the way “the small increase in A* and A grades went disproportionately to those from private schools”.
She too called on Mr Williamson to resign.
Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, was baffled the Education Secretary had not lost his job.
He said: “I can’t believe Gavin Williamson is still in his job.
“It’s hard to imagine what depths of failure ministers have to sink to provoke Boris Johnson to take action.
“With only days to go until schools receive GCSE results for hundreds of thousands of young people, and concerns being repeatedly raised by school leaders, the Government have still not announced a plan to ensure that the A-levels fiasco is not repeated.
“So I’m calling loudly on a clear statement from the Prime Minister to reassure schools that the GCSE results are not going to be chopped and changed.”
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