Letter: Government chose when to listen on A-Levels

Presumably, he also feels it had listened to him, because he indicates that he lobbied for the Government’s subsequent U-turn on the grounds that it was right for the exams regulator Ofqual to drop the algorithm in favour of grades predicted by teachers: “when it became clear that Ofqual’s system wasn’t working”.

But that is just damage limitation and hardly the sign of a Government that was listening at the right time or of an MP who had his ear close to the ground, i.e. when there were early warnings that trouble lay ahead.

As early as July 10, the House of Commons education select committee reported that the A-Level algorithm contained: “inaccuracy and bias against young people from disadvantaged backgrounds”.

About six weeks before that, according to a report in The Times, the former senior education official Sir Jon Coles told the schools minister Nick Gibb that the planned grading system would lead to a large number of inaccuracies with serious consequences for pupils from poorer backgrounds.

In neither case did the Government Paul Bristow praises show any interest. Nor did it consider changing tack when Scotland’s education secretary reinstated over 100,000 exam grades following a row that had led to pupils protesting over “classist” downgrades. It acted only when the A-Level damage was done.

If the Conservative Government was indeed a listening Government, as Paul Bristow claims, it would have heeded early warnings about the planned approach to calculating A-Level grades and thereby spared pupils, parents and schools their anger, disappointment and distress.

David Head

West Town

Peterborough