level, AS, GCSE, Skills Challenge Certificate and Welsh
Baccalaureate grades in Wales will now be awarded on the basis of Centre
Assessment Grades, Education Minister Kirsty Williams confirmed today (Monday
17 August).
The Minister said:
Working with Qualifications Wales and WJEC we have sought an
approach which provides fairness and balances out differences in the standards
applied to judgments in schools.
Given decisions elsewhere, the balance of fairness now lies
with awarding Centre Assessment grades to students, despite the strengths of
the system in Wales.
I am taking this decision now ahead of results being
released this week, so that there is time for the necessary work to take place.
For grades issued last week, I have decided that all awards
in Wales will also be made on the basis of teacher assessment.
For those young people, for whom our system produced higher
grades than those predicted by teachers, the higher grades will stand.
Maintaining standards is not new for 2020, it is a feature
of awarding qualifications every year in Wales, and across the UK.
However, it is clear that maintaining confidence in our
qualifications whilst being fair to students requires this difficult decision.
These have been exceptional circumstances, and in due course
I will be making a further statement on an independent review of events
following the cancellation of this year’s exams.
Other Awarding Bodies across the UK are involved in the
determining the approach to vocational qualifications. This continues to
be the case but it is important that I give assurance to GCSE, AS and A level
student at the earliest opportunity.
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