Ofqual’s exam results algorithm was unlawful, the shadow attorney general has said, as Gavin Williamson finally gave his backing to the beleaguered regulator
The education secretary, who has previously pointed the finger at Ofqual over the exams fiasco, issued a statement on Wednesday saying he had full confidence in the regulator. He admitted it had ultimately been Ofqual’s decision to make U-turn on results produced by its algorithm in favour of teacher-assessed grades.
Meanwhile, Charlie Falconer, who was attorney general under Tony Blair and is now a Labour frontbencher in the Lords, argued that ministers and Ofqual would have been aware of at least three breaches of the law in the standardisation formula used.
This comes after Gavin Williamson, the UK’s Education Secretary, has resisted calls to resign as a cabinet minister, saying that he is “incredibly sorry for the distress” that the A-level and GCSE results issue had caused to students.
In a letter to Williamson and Ofqual’s chief regulator, Sally Collier, Lord Falconer said the saga “should never have come down to this, so late on, when Ofqual and the SoS [the secretary of state, Williamson] have been fully in the knowledge that the standardisation formula that was being used was unlawful.”
The letter, written jointly with the shadow education secretary, Kate Green, said: “The chaos, confusion and unfairness of the way in which Ofqual have acted in recent weeks under the direction of the SoS, and the way the UK government have handled the A-level results, has been a complete fiasco, putting thousands of young people through an enormous amount of stress, worry and uncertainty because of government incompetence.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “As the government has made clear, we have full confidence in Ofqual and its leadership in their role as independent regulator and we continue to work closely with Ofqual to deliver fair results for our young people at this unprecedented time.”
“The decision they took to move from moderated grades to centre assessed grades was one that we agreed with.”
An Ofqual spokesman said: “Ofqual has at all times had appropriate legal advice. We will not discuss the content of the advice given, which is privileged.”
This comes after Universities have been put into admissions “chaos” after the government’s U-turn last week on how A-level exams were graded in England, with some institutions already having reached capacity for new first-year students.
Falconer said that Gavin Williamson’s claim to have only become aware of the issues regarding the algorithm at the weekend was extremely worrying, quoting a report from the education select committee that had raised the concerns in early on back in June.
He said that the Education Secretary should now announce when exactly the Department for Education (DfE) had been made aware of the issues around the exam results algorithm and to publish any legal advice it had received about the system.
Falconer said that the system breached equality legislation and the 2009 act under which Ofqual was established.
Falconer said that the formula for standardising grades was in breach of the overarching objectives of which Ofqual was established under by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.
