Thousands of pupils could miss their expected grades with disadvantaged students, whose learning was disproportionately damaged by the pandemic, most likely to be ‘elbowed out’
Universities are warning that Thursday’s A-level results in England and Wales could be another marking fiasco like the one in 2020, with a “dramatic swing” back to less generous results, and disadvantaged pupils “elbowed out” as thousands fall short of their predicted grades and miss their university places.
After two years of record results, the government told this year’s school leavers, who were the first to sit A-level exams since the pandemic began, that exams would be graded at a “midpoint” between pandemic rises and normal 2019 levels. However, universities now fear that unexpectedly low results in the Scottish Highers, which pupils received last Tuesday, are likely to be replicated in England on Thursday morning. The overall pass rate for Highers fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9% this summer.
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