Ministers consider scrapping A-levels to tackle inflation

A-levels could be scrapped in an exams overhaul after politicians and education experts warned that the inflation of top A-level grades at yesterday’s results day rendered the results “meaningless”.

The proportion of students receiving top A* and A grades has risen by almost 75 per cent since the last time conventional exams were taken in 2019, with nearly half of A-levels – 44.8 per cent – marked at an A or A* this year. The record haul is being put down to the teacher-assessed grading system. 

Gavin Williamson, England’s Education Secretary, defended the system, insisting that debate about how this year’s grades have been awarded should not “undermine or question the value” of students’ results.

Bit Neil Sheldon, a former chief examiner, warned that teachers’ predictions needed some form of standardisation “in order to avoid a descent into meaninglessness through inflation”.

Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the education select committee, said “a hard rock cake of grade inflation” had now been baked into exam results.

There was also concern about the widening attainment gap between private and state school pupils, after 70 per cent of entries from private school pupils received at least an A, while 40 per cent received an A*.

Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said that while students deserved to be congratulated for their hard work, “the Conservatives’ chaotic last-minute decision making has opened the door to unfairness”.

She said: “The increase in A grades is 50% higher among private schools, while black students, students on free school meals and in areas of high deprivation, are being increasingly out-performed by their more advantaged peers.”

According to The Telegraph, one of the options under consideration by the Department for Education (DfE) is the replacement of alphabetical A to E grades with the grading system of 9 to 1 used in GCSEs.

Robert Halfon said that A-levels should be replaced with the international baccalaureate to “ensure a new gold standard in post-16 qualifications.”

The government is also looking at reducing the proportion of students allowed the top grades gradually from year to year until the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline is restored, according to The i.

Under this system, the government would tackle grade inflation over a period of years rather than solve it rapidly with a “sudden shock to the system”.

There are also reports that the PM wants the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to replace Williamson as Education Secretary at the next reshuffle, which could take place early next year.