Department for Education civil servant to resign after A-levels fiasco

The PM effectively sacks the senior Whitehall official for the Department for Education, shortly after blaming a “mutant algorithm” for the grades controversy

The top civil servant for the Department for Education will be leaving next month after Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership”.

Following the controversy over the degrading of A-level results to students this month, following exams being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonathan Slater will be standing down as the permanent secretary of the department on the 1st of September.

He is the second top official to resign from their job in the wake of the A-levels scandal, following it being announced on Tuesday that the Ofqual’s chief regulator, Sally Collier, would also be departing from her position.

This comes after Ofqual’s exam results algorithm was unlawful, Charlie Falconer, the shadow attorney general has said, as Gavin Williamson finally gave his backing to the beleaguered regulator.

Following the widespread anger from students, teachers and parents this month following the controversial grading algorithm, the Department for Education was forced to scrap the program and instead have allowed A-level and GCSE grades to be based on the predictions of the students’ teachers.

The “moderation” algorithm, which had been designed by Ofqual, meant that around 280,000 students throughout England saw their A-level grades get degraded by at least one grade from their originally predicted results.

The algorithm, which was used following the cancellation of this year’s A-level exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was claimed to have been disproportionately penalising those students from schools in more disadvantaged communities within England.

On a visit to a school in Coalville, a town in Leicestershire, on Wednesday, Boris Johnson acknowledged that the situation surrounding education had been “stressful” for those who had been awaiting their A-level and GCSE results.

“I’m afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm,” he told pupils.”

“I know how stressful that must have been for pupils up and down the country.”

“I’m very, very glad that it has finally been sorted out.”

The Prime Minister has abandoned advice that pupils should not be wearing face coverings in secondary schools in England. Boris Johnson has performed his latest U-turn in the face of growing pressure from teaching unions, headteachers and medical experts.

Responding to the prime minister’s comments, Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green accused Mr Johnson of “shamelessly trying to avoid taking responsibility for the exams fiasco that his government created”.

She added: “Responsibility for this shambles lies squarely with Downing Street and the Department for Education, who set out how they wanted the algorithm to work and were warned weeks in advance of issues, but repeatedly refused to address the problems they had created.”

“It is this Tory government’s incompetence that is to blame for the exams fiasco.”

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “It is brazen of the prime minister to idly shrug away a disaster that his own government created.”

“Parents, students, teachers and heads will be horrified to see the leader of this country treat his own exams fiasco like some minor passing fad.”