Gavin Williamson plays A Levels blame game as he points finger at Ofqual exams chief

The Education Secretary refused four times to express “confidence” in Sally Collier, the chief regulator in charge of a botched algorithm that downgraded pupils’ results unfairly
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Gavin Williamson today fought to shift the blame following the A-levels fiasco as he left the future of the £200,000-a-year exams chief in jeopardy.

The Education Secretary refused four times to express “confidence” in Sally Collier, the chief regulator in charge of a botched algorithm that downgraded pupils’ results unfairly.

The Cabinet minister’s public withdrawal of confidence sent a signal that the highly paid official was being blamed for a shambles that led to last Thursday’s A-levels being dramatically replaced with teacher assessed grades in a major U-turn yesterday.

Fighting for his own political survival in a round of media interviews this morning, Mr Williamson sought to scatter the blame as widely as possible.

His harshest words were for Ofqual which he said “didn’t deliver” on the fair system expected, and which gave “assurances” that were not matched by “robustness”.

He said there had been “broad political consensus” backed by teaching unions and Opposition parties that moderating grades by computer was a fair approach and argued that similar U-turns made in the devolved regions meant that Scottish Nationalists, Labour in Wales, and the DUP and Sinn Fein leaders in Northern Ireland were in no position to point fingers at the Conservatives in charge at Westminster.

However, Mr Williamson admitted he only realised the severity of the problem for children whose hopes were unfairly dashed at the weekend. Mr Williamson apologised repeatedly this morning without admitting any personal culpability.

He also refused three times to say if he offered his resignation to the Prime Minister.

The Edcation Secretary being interviewed on Tuesday
Sky News

No 10 continued to express confidence in the Education Secretary, who made clear he intends to stay in his job “over the coming year”.

Privately, senior MPs say there are questions about Mr Williamson’s “grip” and oversight, but they felt the U-turn had saved him from having to resign immediately.

His long-term future would depend, they said, on avoiding any more slip-ups in Thursday’s GCSE results and September’s reopening of schools after the Covid-19 closures — a priority fraught with difficulties.

Robert Halfon, Tory chairman of the education select committee, told the Evening Standard that he would be looking for detailed explanations from Mr Williamson of how things went so wrong, especially given the committee issued a report on July 10 warning of exactly the problems that arose, including the penalising of bright pupils from poorer backgrounds.

“We now need Ofqual and the DfE to publish minutes so we can find out what has gone on,” he added.

Ms Collier has already attracted criticism for being a career official with no experience of working in education.

The Ofqual chief was criticised yesterday by former Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw for giving no interviews or statements to explain the situation during the past week of crisis.

Appointed chief regulator of Ofqual 2016, her previous roles include chief executive of Crown Commercial Service, managing director of the Government Procurement Service and director of procurement policy and capability at the Cabinet Office.

Getty Images

There was no sign of Ms Collier intending to resign this morning, nor of any hit-back from Ofqual. A source at the regulator said: “The senior management leadership team are all committed to resolving the immediate issue over the next few days and delivering GCSE results on Thursday.”

A desperate scramble for places at universities was triggered by yesterday’s U-turn. Thousands of youngsters feared their places had been given away to others after they were awarded the wrong grades on Thursday. Students who now find themselves with higher grades could be asked to wait a year.

Universities pleaded for urgent support from the Government, and some warned they were already full, particularly with Covid-19 measures in place.

Shadow universities minister Emma Hardy said Mr Williamson had created a “massive headache” for higher education. “His delay in making this decision has meant that more and more places at university have been filled up,” she told BBC Breakfast.

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