‘Our teachers have been amazing in the support they’ve given to pupils remotely in recent months’

• THE cancellation of summer exams owing to Covid-19 has placed teachers in the position of judge and jury.

In other words they are being expected to grade and rank their pupils, based upon their own assessment, using evidence such as course work which is not available for all pupils.

Our teachers have been amazing in the support they’ve given to pupils remotely in recent months. However this system of assessment carries issues.

For example, there is much research to suggest that human beings are prone to unconscious bias.

As Professor Elliot Major of Exeter university recently told the education select committee: “The worry is that unintentionally teachers will underestimate the academic potential of poorer pupils, potentially those from black backgrounds and potentially boys.”

In April I wrote to the education secretary Gavin Williamson to express my own misgivings about his department’s proposals for an “awarded grades” system. This letter has not yet been answered.

Evidence from government and academic studies suggests that an over-reliance on predicted grades, and a school’s previous levels of attainment when calculating final outcomes, could disproportionately damage the prospects of disadvantaged pupils, particularly those from BAME and working-class backgrounds.

The Department for Education and The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation must now take urgent action to prevent the potentially unfair and unintended consequences of this new awarding system, if it is not robustly administered.

JENNETTE ARNOLD AM
Labour Member for Hackney Islington & Waltham Forest