The schools minister has admitted that he did not see the Ofqual algorithm used to calculate this year’s exam grades until it was published on A-level results day.
Nick Gibb made a distinction between the “model” and the “algorithm” used to determine students’ grades, arguing that the faults that led to last week’s chaos lay with the latter - which, he claimed, was Ofqual’s responsibility.
The algorithm, Mr Gibb said, was the “implementation of the model by the independent regulator” - and it was this stage of the process where “something went wrong”.
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It was originally intended that this year’s grades would be calculated using an algorithm devised by Ofqual, which would take pupils’ prior attainment and schools’ historic data into account.
But, after last week’s A-level results day ended in chaos, it was decided in a dramatic U-turn that students should receive whichever was higher out of their teacher-assessed and calculated grades.
‘I didn’t see the algorithm until it was published on Thursday’
Schools minister @NickGibbUK is asked why he didn’t check the formula calculating A-level results before they were published
‘It was a fair system, the model, something went wrong however’ https://t.co/3kNNjpkfHx pic.twitter.com/OIPrmv9z8u
- ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) August 20, 2020
Speaking to ITV News, Mr Gibb said: “We had a model, the regulator, the independent regulator, developed the model, they consulted on it, it had wide support, it was a fair system - the model.
“Something went wrong, however, in the way the model translated into grades using the algorithm.”
Mr Gibb added that he “didn’t see the algorithm until it was published on Thursday [13 August]”.
Asked why he didn’t ask to see the algorithm beforehand, the schools minister said: “Because the issue for us was the model on which…The algorithm is the implementation of the model by the independent regulator. The regulator is independent and they translate the model - their model - into practice and how it then translates into the exam grades.”
Asked if anybody in the Department for Education asked to see the algorithm before it was published, Mr Gibb said: “We had an observer in the implementation group, but these are all issues that will be examined in an inquiry to see what happened during this [process].
“Our objective throughout was to make sure that young people received a fair qualification that reflected their work and ability and can move on to the next stage of their careers.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme this morning, Mr Gibb said the model used to calculate this year’s A-level and GCSE grades was “fair” and “very popular”, but “something went wrong” with the way it was implemented.
He also apologised to students for the “delays”, “uncertainty” and “pain and anxiety” they will have faced following the chaos surrounding last week’s A-level results.
