250 TAKE TO THE STREETS AGAINST ‘DISGUSTING’ DOWNGRADING
PRESSURE MOUNTS ON WELSH GOVERNMENT TO MAKE A U TURN AFTER CHILDREN’S COMMISSIONER SAYS TEACHER ASSESSED GRADES MUST BE USED
STUDENTS PLEDGE FURTHER PROTESTS IF ALGORITHM MODEL IS NOT SCRAPPED
Around 250 students, parents, teachers, trade unionists and their supporters took to the steps of the Welsh Parliament on Sunday in an angry protest against unfair grade reductions.
The decision to allow a computer algorithm to downgrade results – which had been given by teachers and signed off by headteachers – has generated a furious backlash against Lib Dem education Minister Kirsty Williams and Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford, and created a major crisis for the ruling party.
It comes as the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Sally Holland, called on Welsh Government to change course and go with teacher assessed grades. In Northern Ireland it was announced that pupils would receive their predicted results for GCSEs, which are to be announced on Thursday.
On Sunday, several homemade placards pointed out that the downgrading had fallen on class lines, making the poorest students take the lowest grades. “This is a Class Issue” one read, another pointed out that students in wealthier Cardiff postcodes have not seen their grades reduced. One simply read: ‘Fuck the Algorithm.’
Following the protest however, Welsh Government stuck by its position, saying in a statement that: “Learners who are not happy with their grades can appeal through their school or college.” But this has only fuelled the anger and pupils are promising further protests if the position remains unchanged.
The crisis mirrors one in Scotland a week earlier and the situation in England. Protest and popular uproar forced Nicola Sturgeon into announcing a U-turn.
In England, Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to intervene in the situation, with Labour calling on the Tory government to change position and honour the teacher assessed grades. On Sunday evening, the former shadow education secretary for England – Angela Rayner – called on the Prime Minister to ‘stop hiding’ and ‘end this historic injustice.’
But thousands of young people in Wales are furious at the hypocrisy of Labour’s response, where the party is implementing in Wales a decision that it denounces in England.
At the protest yesterday, a read-out speech from one Labour MP in Wales was met with loud boos and heckles from the crowd for failing to lay enough blame at the door of the Welsh Labour Government, who have the power to end the injustice immediately.
Several young people are pointing to the Senedd elections next year, saying there will be a backlash against Labour at the ballot box if the situation remains in place. The anger is growing, however, and won’t wait until 2021. With young people’s futures hanging in the balance right now, many cannot wait for months.
“We’re here because we really want justice for our grades,” said student Isabella Carter, who had seen her results fall two places by the algorithm.
“It is completely unfair what’s happened, we’ve worked so hard since the start of our school careers and this is just putting additional barriers in our education. It’s just something that I think shouldn’t have happened and I think the way that it’s happened is extremely stressful as well.”
Her friend, Nathalie Johns from Y Pant Comprehensive, who had also seen her grades fall on Thursday, agreed. “I think it’s disgusting, I think they’re completely ignoring us,” she said. “The Welsh government set up the Seren initiative to try and get high achieving students in Wales into top universities. And now when those high achievers have been denied university places because of the grades they’ve been given, they’ve not done anything about it and are refusing to acknowledge it’s unfair.”
Many young people are saying that the situation also means that they are more likely to face unemployment if they don’t get into university or decide not to go because of huge costs and the pandemic.
With an economic recession and mass unemployment looming, working class people are again being told they must pick up the pieces of a crisis that isn’t of their making. Young people are in line to be one the worst affected groups.
This is the context in which mounting pressure is building on Mark Drakeford to reverse a decision that unfairly hits disadvantaged and Black, Asian and ethnic minority students.
On Sunday, Plaid Leader Adam Price was one of the first to address the crowd, castigating Welsh Government and apologising on behalf the Senedd to young people in Wales. He is now trying to lead a legal challenge against Welsh Government.
Tension too is mounting in Labour. The MS Mike Hedges said on Twitter that Welsh government might as well use an algorithm to get through a backlog in the courts, based on barrister previous success rates. “I know it would not be fair but the A level results were not fair and such an algorithm was used” he wrote.
Some Labour MS’ and councillors attended the protest – although chose not to speak – and other figures have called for the party to make a u turn in Wales.
Cai Parry, a student at Cardiff and the Vale college who organised the protest yesterday, said they would be back this coming weekend if Welsh Government continued to ignore their demands.
“Overall it was a brilliant turnout, far more than I was expecting, “ he said. “Unfortunately, the Government statement released in response to the protest probably means we will be back on Saturday.”
Cai said next time he hoped more students would make speeches and said he was “looking forward to seeing” how any legal challenge pans out. The protest alos heard from National Education Union representative, the Wales TUC and MSs Neil McAavoy and Delyth Jewell.
On the prospects of a victory for the campaign, he said: “After a couple of Labour backbenchers in the Senedd expressed support for us, the Government might not have the numbers in the Senedd to reject a motion that changes the grading system in some way. If they don’t make the u turn themselves, they may be forced to when the Senedd returns from recess.”
Cai described the announcement from Sally Holland to go with teacher assessed grades as “a massive voice to add to the scrutiny against the government. I think it would be a terrible mistake for Labour at the next election to carry on as they are.”
The tide may well be turning though, and pupils sense what could be an important victory.
With nurses protesting for fair pay and other groups taking to the streets, any victory from one could quickly inform another, and inspire them to organise if they think it will make this kind of impact.
