Munira Wilson: 75,000 A-Level grades set to be marked down under new exam plans

75,266 A-Level exam results in England could miss out on a A* or A grade today (Thursday 18 August) due to the Government’s plan to deflate grades, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats reveals.

The Chief Regulator of Ofqual, Dr Jo Saxton, has instructed exam boards to set grade boundaries in a way that “reflects a mid-point between 2021 and pre-pandemic grading”. 

The exact boundaries will vary by subject and grade. However, analysis by the Liberal Democrats shows that, should each subject adopt the exact midpoint between the 2019 and 2021 results, 75,266 exams (9.6% of all A-Level exams sat) that would have been given an A or A* in 2021 will not make the grade this year.

Around 7,800 Psychology students will miss out on an A or A* grade compared to last year, more than any other subject. In Music, more than one in six of the 5,300 students entered for the A-Level this year could miss out on the top grades, which they would have received last year.

The 18-year-olds sitting A-Levels this summer had every year of their GCSE and A-Level studies disrupted by the pandemic. Students in this year group missed 61 days of education due to lockdowns since March 2020 on average.

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

“The Government deserves an ‘F’ for letting down these pupils, their parents and their teachers since day one of the pandemic.

“The Conservatives have fiddled the figures and failed our young people yet again. Ministers are throwing into question thousands of students’ futures by taking their grades away to correct two years of exam chaos.

“This uncaring Conservative carousel of Education Secretaries cannot be trusted with our young people’s future any longer. We need proper investment in helping children recover lost learning from the pandemic, and we need this Government gone.”