Category: Student Activism

UK. There cannot be that many people that don’t believe that the Conservative government has not made a mess of handling the assessment of A-Levels, BTECs and GCSEs, even traditionally Tory-friendly papers are mocking the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. And it is hard not to conclude that the actions of the government have been inept. What happened in Scotland should have provided advance warning to the problem coming in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but the government carried on regardless, only to then follow Scotland’s example of announcing a U-turn and accepting teacher assessed grades as well as those predicted by the algorithm. This about-face has resulted in its own problems with some Universities/Programmes becoming oversubscribed (with resultant health and safety concerns) and others undersubscribed (and in greater financial difficulty and threat of bankruptcy).