PROTEST SET TO TAKE PLACE OUTSIDE THE SENEDD AT 1.00PM TODAY WITH STUDENTS, SCHOOL WORKERS AND POLITICAL LEADERS DEMANDING ALGORITHM MODEL IS SCRAPPED
SYSTEM SEES 42% OF A LEVEL PUPILS DOWNGRADED AT A TIME OF LOOMING ECONOMIC RECESSION AND MASS UNEMPLOYMENT
VOICE SPEAKS TO STUDENT ORGANISER OF THE PROTEST AND AN ACTIVIST & TEACHER WITH THE NATIONAL EDUCATION UNION
By SC Cook, Photo via Alan Gibbons
Students who received their A and AS level results this week are trying to force Welsh Government to change a system which allowed an algorithm to set pupils’ grades.
They will protest today at 1.00pm outside The Senedd, Cardiff Bay, amid growing anger at the way in which thousands of young people have had their grades lowered, with many losing places at universities as a result. At the same time, a petition calling for teacher-assessed grades to be honoured rapidly gathered almost 21,000 signatures at time of writing.
The issue now represents a real crisis for First Minister Mark Drakeford and Education Minister Kirsty Wiliams. Both have defended the grading system despite the furious backlash it has generated.
The leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price – who is speaking at today’s protest – has also written to the government demanding the system is overhauled and grades put back to what teacher’s had originally predicted.
42% of sixth form students in Wales saw their grades downgraded on Thursday from what their own teachers had predicted them to get.
The downgrading was done by a computer algorithm that took into account factors such as the school’s or college’s past performance more than the individual student and their teacher’s assessments.
On Friday the Swansea MS Mike Hedges claimed that one school in his area has seen grades lowered for some pupils without any of their work being looked at or considered.
In a sign of growing division with Labour over the issue, MS Jenny Rathbone also claimed that big schools with poorer students had been “hammered by inexplicable reductions in grades.”
It is also the case that many of these schools will have a large proportion of students from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background, leading to further racial discrimination of young people.
Pupils in receipt of free school meals were also more likely to have their grades downgraded than any other group, according to figures released by the BBC, and private, fee-paying schools benefited the most.
The scandal over how the algorithm has replicated and exacerbated existing class inequalities, and left poorer students to pick up the pieces when the economy is set for a major recession, is also feeding into wider frustrations.
Cai Parry is a student at Cardiff and the Vale College and is organising today’s protest. He says students are feeling a “combination of anger and shock” at the situation.
“I saw the exam fiasco in Scotland, and was expecting something similar to happen in Wales after reading a couple of news reports,” he told voice wales. “I saw how successful the Glasgow protest was, and decided to start organising one in Cardiff just in case it was needed at short notice”
In Scotland, where results were announced last week and poorer students left disadvantaged in a similar way, a protest and a public backlash forced the SNP into a U-turn that people hope will be replicated in Wales.
“I’d say everyone I’ve spoken to besides a few think they’ve had at least one of their results downgraded,” he said, adding that most people didn’t even get to see their teacher-assessed grades.”
Cai believes he has had his Maths AS downgraded, as he got an A* at GCSE, a B in the mock exam, but has been awarded a D for the final grade.
“It looks like students have been treated as data points this year to fit a narrative that makes the awards process credible when compared against other years,” he said.
He said the pandemic should have been a “great opportunity” to change the way exams are done. “We should have less of an emphasis on written examination, and more on coursework…”
“A vast majority of students are also having real difficulty getting their heads around how ministers think this is a fair system, and believe that the declarations of victory in a ‘fair system’ from Mark Drakeford and Ed Davey [who expressed support for Kirsty Williams] especially are completely tone deaf.”
He says he’s disappointed by the Lib Dems and Labour’s response to the crisis on a UK wide level:
“They seem to be neglecting the situation in Wales by scrutinising the English grades system so vigorously, and then praising the similar system in Wales to score party political points. I’m disappointed by the national media for not picking up on this apparent hypocrisy too.”
In Scotland, Labour has called for the education secretary to resign over the use of an unfair algorithm and demanded it be scrapped in England. In Wales however, where the party has the power to change the system, it has chosen not to.
Cai says that ultimately “all devolved governments and Whitehall have got it wrong, it’s time they did their jobs and brought justice to young people.”
On Friday in London, students marched from Downing Street to the Department for Education chanting, “No Tories, no cheats, no Eton elites” and “Fuck the algorithm.” In Liverpool yesterday, a similar protest was held, pictured.
Máiréad Canavan is a secondary school teacher in Penarth and represents Wales on the executive of the National Education Union. She is due to address the protest this afternoon and told voice wales that “the professionalism of teachers should be trusted as we know our students best.”
“It’s outrageous and obscene that a young person’s life chances should be determined by a computer algorithm and young people are fully aware of and very angry about how coldly these decisions have been arrived at.”
She said that young people would now miss out on university courses that they fully deserved.
“It’s a huge slap in the face after the long months of lockdown when teachers have been working in hubs and doing our very best for our students remotely and they believed us when we assured them that they would not be disadvantaged by Covid-19,” she said.
Máiréad criticised education minister Kirsty Williams, saying that “she has made it known to everyone now that she doesn’t trust us to do our jobs without a huge level of scrutiny and frankly it’s highly insulting.”
She said that teachers had agonised over ranking students in the first place as it was a “grossly unfair thing to do.” Teachers would now feel “powerless to help our pupils reach their potential even though we are the only people that know what these young people are capable of,” she said.
“All that hard work and agonising by teachers has just been ignored and an algorithm used to decide on the grades for young people, like they don’t matter at all to anyone!”
The situation now also turns to GCSE grades next week where a similarly flawed algorithm will be used. Máiréad Canavan said that the same issue must not be allowed to happen again.
“Young people have been through enough this year and this is the straw that broke the camel’s back in my view. This is the way to make young people lose all hope in justice and hard work getting them a reward and this is at a time when the job market is about to get even tougher for them than ever before!
“I feel desperately sorry for these students who are having their future snatched away from them and they are powerless to stop it.”
The protest will take place on Sunday 16th August at 1.00pm outside The Senedd, Cardiff Bay.
If you are a young person affected by this issue, please get in touch with us. walesvoice@gmail.com
