Gavin Williamson’s exams U-turn is welcome but he should still lose job – The Yorkshire Post says

A victory for common sense, it does, at the very least, allow pupils to prepare for their futures with greater confidence and draw a line under a growing injustice and political scandal which was already compromising the life chances of so many young people, particularly in the North.

By disproportionately downgrading good students in poor schools, the Government may have unwittingly revealed a contempt for its own levelling up agenda.

But this U-turn, and acceptance that teachers know their students best of all, still does not excuse the lack of leadership from Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, or Boris Johnson’s slow response.

And it is difficult to see how Mr Williamson’s position can remain remotely tenable when he insisted last weekend that there would be no U-turn and that the algorithm used to determine grades was – in his words for the avoidance of doubt – a “fair and robust system for the overwhelming majority of students”.

Such woeful judgement from a Cabinet minister already regarded as a political liability for his mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis does not inspire sufficient confidence when other challenges, like the reopening of all schools next month, still remain outstanding.

Young people are this country’s future. They also have the most to lose from the deepening recession. The least they deserve is an Education Secretary worthy of such an important job at such a critical time.

Only if the Prime Minister relieves Mr Williamson of his position will we know if this was elitism by design or one man’s calamity.

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James Mitchinson

Editor