Gavin Williamson dodges question over resignation following U-turn and insists there was 'broad political consensus' for moderated grades

Luke O'Reilly18 August 2020

Embattled Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has refused to say whether he will resign following the Government's massive U-turn on A-Level results.

Mr Williamson said there had been a "broad political consensus" about the need to have moderated grades, but that process was finally abandoned after "too many anomalies" were thrown up by Ofqual's algorithm.

It was put to him that the Government heard evidence in July that the system "would lead to unfair bias and discrimination against already disadvantaged groups".

However, he claimed that they had put children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds “at the heart” of its development of a moderated grades system.

Mr Williamson refused to resign
PA

The education secretary refused to answer if he would "do the honourable thing" and resign.

Instead, he apologised again for the U-turn. He said: "I am incredibly sorry for the fact that this has caused distress.

“But the right thing to do was when it was clear that the system wasn’t delivering what we believed, and been assured that it would do, and the fairness that we all expect it to deliver and we all had confidence and belief that it would deliver, then further action had to be taken.

“That’s what I did, that’s the decision that I took and that’s what we did yesterday.

“But, of course, I’m incredibly sorry for the distress that it’s caused for those young people, but it was still the right thing to do to make those changes yesterday.”

A Level Results 2020 - In pictures

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On a later media round Mr Williamson acknowledged that universities face challenges after the Government announced that A-level students can use teachers’ assessed grades rather than moderated grades awarded last week.

He told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve set up a task force with the university sector – how can we boost their capacity, not just boosting their capacity for this year, but also looking at how we can boost their capacity for next year.

“We recognise some of the real challenges that universities face. We know that there’s a clear expectation that is on universities for them to welcome in so many youngsters who have achieved those grades. We’re working with those universities to ensure that they’re able to welcome as many youngsters to them as possible.”

Mr Williamson added: “We’re going to have a record year of the number of people who are going to university and we’ll work with the sector to ensure they have as much capacity.”

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