UK govt suspends exam appeal criteria, deepening chaos for students

The UK suspended new criteria for appealing exam results in England, used to gain entry to universities, just hours after their publication, further stoking public outrage over the government’s handling of the process during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation early Sunday said the new appeals criteria published Saturday afternoon were now “being reviewed.” The appeals process was due to begin Monday, and the new guidelines allowed more leeway for raising grades after hundreds of thousands of students received lower marks than projected by their schools.

The lockdown in March meant Britain’s 16-and 18-year-olds were unable to sit their usual exams, which are used for job and university applications. Instead, the government said grades would be based on an algorithm combining teachers’ predictions, their past test scores and — controversially — the results achieved by previous students at their schools.

That prompted a backlash from students after more than a third of students had predicted grades downgraded, with young people from economically disadvantaged places harder hit by the changes. Students protested outside the government’s headquarters in London on Friday calling for Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to resign, and parents are weighing lawsuits, the Sunday Times reported.

The release of the exam results on August 13 was covered live, with television networks like the BBC holding interviews with distraught students learning they would be denied places at their chosen universities. That process may be played out again on August 20, when the results of the GCSEs, exams taken by 16-year-olds, are made public.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter on Sunday, “We need to end this fiasco.”