Gavin Williamson should be put in detention over A-level catastrophe - Jayne Dowle

Mr Williamson has had the temerity to suggest that this catastrophic A-level “standardisation”, aka Ofqual’s “computer says no” algorithm, was necessary because teacher-predicted grades could have resulted in young people getting above their station. This is from a man who sits alongside Matt Hancock. If his Cabinet colleagues are anything to go by, the very top table of British government is definitely middle band, at best.

It is a sign of Boris Johnson’s weakness as Prime Minister that the hapless MP for South Staffordshire is still in post. He should have been summoned to the headmaster earlier this summer when he came off worse in the battle with teaching unions. Mr Williamson is obviously a slow learner. The simple fact is that he should have done better, much better, to ensure that A-level students were treated fairly in this incredibly testing year.

Please don’t bother to defend his actions. I’m not brooking argument from people who dismiss this year’s crop of 18-year-olds as woke “snowflakes” bleating because they’ve been downgraded from an A to a C. I’ve seen what the likes of Jeremy Clarkson have been saying, and frankly it’s repugnant.

They should meet teenagers like the studious young woman who worked part-time in a supermarket with my own 18-year-old son. On the day lockdown was announced in March she burst into tears in front of me. Her biggest concern, above even her own health and personal safety, was what would happen to the maths and science A-levels she was striving so hard for at Chapeltown Academy.

What critics forget is that almost half of the 330,000 A-level students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are standing on the cusp of adulthood with their futures ruined. And don’t forget the students in Scotland who suffered a similar fate with their Highers. This is sure to have a detrimental effect on society. How will it shape a generation’s perception of politics and democracy?

At least 40 per cent of these teenagers have had their predicted grades slashed, scuppering their plans for higher education. I’ve heard countless cases where mock results of A and A* mysteriously transmogrified into D and E, thanks to Ofqual’s inequitable weighting system, which makes adjustments for schools in less-affluent areas.

Yes, this has really happened. For all that talk of levelling-up and social equality, this wretched government has shown its true colours. And what’s more, it has proved (yet again) that it can’t get anything “done” properly. Why should these young people and their parents trust Mr Williamson’s on-the-hoof assurances that mock results may count after all? Or that the clearing system will pick up those with lower grades and offer a place, probably on a course the student had never considered studying in a town or city they may hate?

Or start an appeals process, an option immediately mired in confusion and cost. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has called for the right to individual appeals to be granted and for the fee for appeals to be waived. Some universities, including Oxford, have already said that students who missed their A-level offer grades but successfully appeal will be required to defer entry for a year. There is clearly no one-size-fits-all solution across all higher education institutions. Students and their parents face a huge battle through smoke and mirrors to even hope for an ounce of redress.

I’m so disappointed that a Scarborough-born, state school educated, University of Bradford social sciences graduate at the heart of government can’t do better for our kids. He should understand more than most the importance of “levelling up”. He should recognise that this is far more complex than a simple matter of North and South. It’s about rich and poor, haves and have-nots and parents with sharp elbows.

Yorkshire’s grammar and independent schools have fared relatively well, with students achieving overwhelming high grades. It’s the state schools and sixth form colleges, particularly in areas of social and economic deprivation, which have been particularly penalised by the calculations of that blasted algorithm. According to Paul Johnson, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies – who went to a state secondary, followed by Keble College, Oxford – it looks like private schools may have had a boost in grades because of the differential effect of the weighting applied to smaller sixth forms.

Was it really only in March that this Education Secretary promised that his priority was to “ensure no young person faces a barrier when it comes to moving on to the next stage of their lives”? What has Mr Williamson been doing since, except battling with teachers over back-to-school arrangements? If he is as incapable of anticipating disaster as he appears, he should be put in detention. Permanently.

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