FOLLOWING the GCSE results fiasco, the National Union of Teachers is demanding the regrading of all results.
Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, said yesterday: ‘The only immediate way of putting right the injustice faced by so many students, teachers and schools is that this summer’s exams should be re-graded, not remarked, using the same criteria applied in assessing the work of January entrants.
‘This alongside an independent inquiry would be an important step to begin to address the deep sense of mistrust that is developing between teachers and government.
‘Michael Gove cannot continue to stand on the sidelines when so many have been affected by an education system which he presides over.
‘Between January and June exam boards changed the grade boundaries in such a way that many pupils who would have scored a C in January scored a D in June – for exactly the same work. This change was not explained and has disadvantaged many thousands of pupils and their schools.
‘Michael Gove should immediately announce an independent inquiry into how this was allowed to happen.’
He added: ‘There is further speculation that Michael Gove’s desire to turn all of England’s secondary schools into academies underlies his decision to increase the floor target from 35% to 40% of pupils achieving five A* to C GSCE grades.
‘If classified as “failing”, schools will of course be more threatened with forced academisation by private sponsors. This speculation that education is now increasingly a political football is extremely corrosive to teachers’ trust in the government’s handling of the education system.’