ON August 1 Adrian Kibbler drew attention to the problem of GCSE grade inflation, in relation to Stuart Cooke’s retirement from Tenbury High School. I, along with many others, including Michael Gove, strongly support his contention that this is a serious and continuing problem.
The point I was making, that Adrian reported, was that it was unfair to use that worry to change the grades in the middle of a year. This is what the High Court said was unfair, if not unlawful.
The re-grading was applied to the second half of a single year, so that June examinees faced a higher threshold than those taking the tests in January. This is as unacceptable and unjustifiable as saying that those pupils with names from A to M would pass at 40 per cent, while those with names from N to Z would pass at 50 per cent. Would anyone propose such nonsense?
Why did they do it? They were worried about bad publicity over too high a pass rate – more criticism of grade inflation. It was their mistake, but the pupils suffered.
The whole affair was a disgrace but no one in authority resigned.
No one even apologised, as far as I recall. In fact Glenys Stacey, the head of Ofqual, sought to justify the decision, so presumably what happened in 2012 could happen again this year. For the pupils’ sake, I sincerely hope it does not.
KEN POLLOCK
Member for Tenbury
Worcestershire County Council
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