Disappointment in Leicester over court's GCSE English grades ruling
Education leaders say they are disappointed with the outcome of a High Court decision on last summer's GCSE English grades.
An alliance of pupils, schools, teaching unions and councils across the country were seeking a judicial review into the grading which left thousands of students who were predicted C grades, awarded a D instead.
The alliance accused exam boards and education watchdog Ofqual of unfairly pushing up grade boundaries in the subject last year, meaning students who sat the modular exam earlier, in January, achieved higher grades than those who sat it later on.
They had hoped to have the exam papers regraded, but a High Court judge has ruled that the exam boards and Ofqual did not act unlawfully.
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At least six of Leicester's 16 secondary schools asked for the summer English GCSE papers to be re-marked following the outcry.
Samworth Enterprise Academy, off Saffron Lane, Leicester, and Judgemeadow Community College, in Evington, were among those schools whose results were affected.
Ian Leaver, assistant secretary of the Leicester branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: "A great injustice has been done.
"While this is a disappointing outcome, the High Court did recognise that the alliance was right to bring the case to court and this was an issue of great public concern.
"About 10,000 students who took their English GCSE exam in June missed out on a C grade as a result of the decisions by the examination boards.
"These students had achieved exactly the same standard as their classmates who were awarded a C grade just a few months earlier.
"The Welsh Government recognised the plight of the pupils affected and ordered the regrading.
"It's profoundly unfair that the High Court has taken a different view."
Bill Morris, head of the Education Improvement Partnership, which looks after the city's secondary schools, said: "It's inevitable this decision will disappoint head teachers whose pupils were affected by this.
"Many of the students involved have now moved on and are trying to put it behind them.
"Some resat the exam in November.
"We did our best at the time to make sure they could still further themselves elsewhere and each student was considered on their individual merits."
3 Comments
by Bob491
Friday, February 15 2013, 11:42AM
“It is just one small part of the unfairness existing in society today, isn't it.”
by Stoned
Thursday, February 14 2013, 9:52AM
“The goal posts are being moved all of the time in all sorts of exams, not just those we take at school. Take the driving test for example....in recent years a change was made to the number of reverse manoeuvres a candidate is required to carry out. It was reduced from two to one but I didn't see an outcry about the fact that a person taking a test on Monday had what may be perceived as an easier test than the one who took it the previous Friday. This is life, get used to it.”
by NickDiPerna1
Thursday, February 14 2013, 9:39AM
“How dare they push up grade boundaries – let's keep them permanently dumbed down so we all can go to uni and get nice jobs in the 'establishment' :-)”