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Case

Legal action over A-Level results fiasco

We have received hundreds of emails from devastated students, whose grades have been downgraded and who have lost their university places and job offers, lost funding and scholarships, and completely lost their faith that their Government will help.

Because without an adequate appeal mechanism, there is almost nothing they can do. There is no appeal based on merits, however much they were downgraded by.

We have written to Ofqual to say that they have a duty to create a scheme that is procedurally fair and they have failed. There is a systemic problem with the scheme that gives rise to an unacceptable risk of procedural unfairness.  Ofqual has also breached its obligation to ensure that “regulated qualifications give a reliable indication of knowledge, skills and understanding” and to “promote public confidence in regulated qualifications”. You can read our letter here.

Our claim requires Ofqual to revise the present system, which is unfair and unlawful. Such unfairness might be remedied by creating a merits-based appeal right for those students whose Centre Assessment Grade has been downgraded and resetting the system so that students’ grades can be downgraded by one grade at most.

Because of the huge urgency – even more university places and jobs are at risk if this mess isn’t resolved really soon – we have asked for a reply by 4pm on Wednesday 19 August 2020. If we don’t hear back or Ofqual refuse to remedy the situation, we intend to issue proceedings.

Ofqual – and the Government – seem to be saying to these young people “if you don’t go to a successful school, you don’t deserve to succeed either.” Strip away all the science and that’s what’s delivered by the system they have put in place. It’s not fair. It’s not good enough. And hard working students should not have to stand for it.

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