Parents and students set for court battle over A-level results
Angry parents and students are preparing to take legal action to appeal A-level results awarded under the emergency coronavirus marking system.
Many students saw their expected results downgraded by the government’s system last week, particularly in lower socio-economic areas.
For example, there have been many examples of students from poorer backgrounds having expected A* or A grades downgraded to a B or lower.
The fiasco has caused many students to have their places from prestigious universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, withdrawn.
Multiple Labour MPs have also called for education secretary Gavin Williamson to resign over the fiasco.
The Sunday Times reports that parents across the country are now preparing to judicially challenge grades awarded to their children.
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Some of the claims have been supported by groups such as The Good Law Project and law firm Leigh Day.
The Good Law Project has sent a pre-action letter to Ofqual to challenge the fairness of the grading system.
Hamza Nur is one of the people legally challenging a grading, after her son Ridwan received a D in business studies and Us in physics and maths.
Ridwan – who went to New City College, a further education college in Tower Hamlets – had predicted grades of A, B and B in business studies, physics and maths respectively.
Nur told the Sunday Times: “This is not just for my son — this is for all the students.
“We want them to review the whole process, quash the results and come up with a fairer system of assessing students.”
Former Scottish Tories leader Ruth Davidson told Times Radio today that Williamson needed to “grip” the issue immediately.
“The education secretary needs to get out on the television, he needs to be telling people what’s going on, he needs to be telling Ofqual, what is going to happen and he needs to grab this,” she said.