Nick Gibbs, Schools Minister said Dept of Education worked very closely with Ofqual in developing A level and GCSE results model. He defended the direction SoS gave to Ofqual (on 31/3) as lawful, but specifically declined to defend the Ofqual model as lawful. Significant.
The direction was the very beginning of the process and was not itself unlawful. It was the model they developed together which was unlawful in 3 respects.
1. For many students it did not purport to assess the individual’s attainment, but instead relied primarily on the performance of their school or college in previous years, in breach of Ofqual’s statutory duty to have a system which assessed the individual’s attainment.
2. By using system which relied on previous years results for student’s school or college, model baked in discrimination against whole range of students eg those from poor backgrounds,those not at private schools,those at schools with high BAME numbers, those with disabilities.
3. Having no system of appeal, even after allowing mocks to be included, which allowed student to complain result was wrong for him or her. Appeal system only allowed appeals on basis the model had been wrongly applied, even though these exams are life chance determining.
