Judge rejects call to regrade English GCSEs

 
13 February 2013

Thousands of teenagers who got lower than expected GCSE English marks will not have their papers regraded after a judge dismissed a High Court claim today.

An alliance of pupils, unions, schools and councils challenged changes in grade boundaries that saw many doing worse in their exams than predicted.

But Lord Justice Elias today dismissed the judicial review application. In his judgment, he wrote that although there was “widespread and genuine concern” and “on the face of it an unfairness which needed to be explained”, neither watchdog Ofqual nor the exam awarding bodies had taken unlawful action.

The alliance had argued that pupils who took English exams in June got lower marks than those who sat them in January because grade boundaries were changed. More than 10,000 pupils missed out on a crucial C grade because of the boundary changes, which is needed for many jobs and higher education courses. Exam boards Edexcel and AQA said that they had acted properly and Ofqual argued it had acted in a “clear, principled and transparent” way.

In his judgment, Lord Justice Elias admitted that the structure of the exams had caused unfairness. But he noted that Ofqual had since announced changes, such as cutting the number of modules students can take.

He wrote: “I am satisfied that it was indeed the structure of the qualification itself which is the source of such unfairness as has been demonstrated in this case, and not any unlawful action by either Ofqual or the awarding organisations.”

Joan McVittie, headteacher of Woodside High School in north London, which was part of the alliance, and past president of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We are bitterly disappointed. This case was taken on behalf of young people who were affected last summer. This has affected their life chances considerably.”

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