Teachers are the real culprits in school exams fiasco – Yorkshire Post Letters

CHRISTA Ackroyd’s piece on the A-level results (The Yorkshire Post, April 16) failed to mention who are the real culprits of this fiasco. We should look not to the Government for answers but teachers.

Many European countries managed to find a way for pupils to sit key exams, but not the UK teaching profession (and unions) – quick to close and slow to reopen. It would have been a reasonably simple exercise to organise socially distanced exams for relatively small numbers of the school population, using additional venues (if necessary).

In her article, Christa says ‘‘so what if the teachers were over generous with their grades’’ – well, if all the profession had been realistic, based on the school’s historic performance, there would have been no requirement for Ofqual to use a standardisation model.

Clearly, the predictions were ill thought through and the profession should have focused on ways for students to sit exams rather than reasons not to sit them. It’s time the teaching profession took some responsibility.

From: David Brewer, Swineherd Lane, Kirkbymoorside, York.

IT is now clear that every year, not just in this Covid year, there is a process of massaging results that ensures poorly performing schools will always be the poorest performing schools and better performing schools will always have superior results.

This is what happens when a school’s previous exam history is used as an excuse to reduce the grades of the poorest schools and enhance those of historically better performing schools. This is how the current system of levelling down/standardisation / normalised distribution works.

It results in the indefensible situation where pupils who sit the same exam, and are given the same mark, can then be awarded different grades depending on where they were educated. This appalling situation cannot possibly be allowed to continue unchallenged.

From: Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton.

CHRISTA Ackroyd reveals she was ‘‘lucky enough’’ to thrive on the pressure of exams. Since we don’t choose – inter alia – our parents’ income and interests, the school environment or any biological constraints on our intelligence, is the world of education constantly throwing an unusual set of dice?

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