The chief exams regulator has defended England’s return to pre-pandemic grading this year, after the boss of England’s biggest academy trust said that the resulting divergence in standards between nations was “completely indefensible”.
Dr Jo Saxton, chief regulator at Ofqual, also said that the return to pre-pandemic grading levels was “done” and that the regulator had had “assurance” from university admission teams throughout the two-year return to pre-pandemic grading levels that they “understand the qualification differences”.
A-level results this year revealed an expected fall in the overall proportion of top A-level grades awarded in England and marked the second year in Ofqual’s two-year plan to return to pre-pandemic grading.
However, as grades were published today, United Learning’s chief executive Sir Jon Coles hit out at the difference in A-level grading between England and the nations of Wales and Northern Ireland.
Data published this morning revealed that 26.5 per cent of entries in England achieved an A or A* grade compared with 35.9 per cent in 2022.
However, in Wales and Northern Ireland, results remain higher than in pre-pandemic years - as was expected - with 34 per cent and 37.5 per cent of entries achieving the top grades, respectively.
Dr Saxton told Tes it was “important to remember” that there were different qualification structures across the different nation administrations and there was “a long history behind that”.
She added: “Universities know that, they understand that…We’ve worked hand in hand with universities admissions teams throughout this two-year process of reinstating normal pre-pandemic arrangements.”
The chief regulator said universities “absolutely understood” the distinctions between the devolved administrations and it was “communicated and transparent before teachers and leaders were making student predictions” and “well before universities were making offers”.
She added that the final numbers of students from the devolved nations attending university in England were yet to be published by Ucas.
“I understand why parents and students will worry about it, but I really hope I can give some reassurance.
“The different educational arrangements for the devolved administrations are not preventing [students in England] from opportunity.”
‘Different countries doing different things isn’t reasonable’
But, speaking to Tes after raising the issue on social media earlier today, Sir Jon - who oversees over 50 secondary schools in England and is a former senior Department for Education official - said that Ofqual and fellow regulators’ approaches to grading this year were “reasonable” but “what isn’t reasonable is that different countries are doing different things. That creates unfairness for young people”.
He added: “The differences between nations have been growing for some years, ever since the UK government decided to ‘go it alone’ by introducing 9-1 graded GCSEs in England. That ended the previous three-country regulatory model, which was designed to ensure equity across all the nations using GCSEs and A levels.
“The gap between different countries’ grade profiles is now wide: to get from the Northern Irish grade distribution to the English one, you would have to downgrade 49 per cent of all Northern Irish A levels.”
Sir Jon said the solution is more “political than regulatory” and called on the government “to recommit to three-country regulation and start the work to rebuild it”.
Return to pre-pandemic grading is now ‘done’
Asked if schools could expect to see a further fall in grades in 2024, Dr Saxton, who is also a former senior DfE official, said that today’s results were “incredibly close to those of 2019” but the “protection” put in place “had produced an increase in top grades on 2019”.
However, she said the increase was “very small…so there is no further drop to be done. 2019 standards have been carried forward”.
“You can get changes in patterns for what A-level results look like but as the regulator, we are not going to be driving any kind of reset.”
She added that the two-year plan for a return to pre-pandemic grading is “done”.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research, told Tes that this year’s grades are “more useful as they give a better indication of students’ capabilities”, and added that Ofqual’s approach had been “brutal” but “brave”.
“Neither Wales nor Northern Ireland is trying to get back to normal standards until next year. England is what’s driving the decrease - it’s right to go back to this consistent grading,” he said.
“It is brutal and I think many people this morning will be disappointed by the actual grades they’ve got but I think they actually have more value. These grades put the young people and their parents in a much better position to make sound decisions.
“The inflated grades of the past few years resulted in incorrect decisions. I think Ofqual has been brave in going the whole hog.”
However, Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, called for “questions to be asked about the fairness of an examination system that has applied different grade standards to different year cohorts of students but also students in the same year - depending on whether they live in England, Scotland or Wales”.
