We cannot allow inequality to increase within the education system

Editorial: The worst outcome of failing to address ‘grade inflation’ could be the exams process becoming a further extension of the class system

(Dave Brown )

The proportion of A-level passes resulting in an A or A* grade is now up to almost 45 per cent, an increase on the already high 38 per cent share recorded in 2020, while the overall pass rate has fallen only marginally against the long-term trend – edging down from 99.7 per cent to 99.5 per cent in this summer’s non-exam assessments.

Of course, the results last year (even more chaotic) and this year are far from typical, and for obvious reasons. The Covid-19 crisis meant that there was no realistic chance of holding the usual round of examinations. Teacher assessments based on coursework and mock exams were the result. In 2020 there was a crude and sometimes eccentric control measure applied to the grading – the infamous algorithm – but this resulted in such unfairness that it had to be abandoned.

The result was a more orderly results process this time round, but one with an even greater degree of grade inflation. Through no fault of the teachers or pupils, Britain has entered into a phase of educational grade hyperinflation, in which there is no incentive for those involved to award cautious, conservative marks if they believe that others may not do so. This means that universities and prospective employers may have less of a clear idea of the relative merits of candidates.

The assessment system, combined with the effects of lockdown, seems also to have incubated yet more unfairness and inequality, with private education institutions achieving a disproportionate increase in students winning the top grades. The use of predicted A-level grades is also compounding existing disadvantages for black students, according to experts. This cannot go on.

One reason why it won’t go on is because the exams system should be back in operation in 2022 – unless events dictate otherwise. The disruptions of 2020 and 2021 that led to such distorted results will, with luck, have ended, and the process of grade disinflation can begin. Even before Covid-19 there was a long-term drift in grading that was potentially threatening to “debase the currency”.

The danger is that the A-level becomes so discredited that universities and employers will turn to new exams and new standards in order to pick their new entrants. Systems such as the International Baccalaureate, or apprenticeships and T-levels, might provide attractive alternatives for some disciplines and purposes. That would not be damaging in itself, especially as technical qualifications have been undervalued, but it would mean comparing like with like would become more difficult.

The worst outcome would be the exams process becoming a further extension of the class system, with the development of separate and unequal grading protocols. Some controlled “grade deflation” in A-levels would be the fairest way forward for all.