The Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has told GB News that fewer top grades this year won’t impact young people’s opportunities in higher education.
Speaking to Breakfast with Stephen and Isabel, Ms Keegan told students receiving their A-Level results this morning “not to worry”, adding that “the number of university places are still the same.”
“I think we should say a massive congratulations to students today because they have been through quite a lot,” she said.
“They have had quite a lot of disruption, and they’ve worked so hard to get to this point.”
Explaining the reason for the adjustment in allocated grades, the minister explained: “If we change the grading system, the grades change back to normal.”
“There is still the same, in fact, even greater opportunity for this cohort of students because we also have many, many other opportunities as well such as many more degree apprenticeships.”
The students receiving their results today received record GCSE results in 2021 as they were graded by their own teachers due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
And the GB News host pointed out that students “have had to carry on through all the industrial action” which was “really disruptive for the students.”
“One in five of them today can expect not to get their first choice of university because of great deflation,” Ms Webster told the minister. “We’re seeing around an 11% reduction in those getting A’s or A*’s; a lot of young people will be pretty miffed, don’t you think?”
The Secretary of State said that students missing out on their predicted grades “was a very normal part of the system.”
“I think only one in five actually get their predicted grades or above,” she said.
“Actually, university places and the access to university is still exactly the same as it was.
“So, if they’ve got a B and gone to university in 2019, they’ll get a B and go to university in 2023.
“This is really important because our exams both GCSEs and A-levels are highly regarded across the world and we just want to make sure they keep that value.
“We needed to go back from teacher assessed grades, and we did that last year but now we’re going back to the normal grading system and that will make sure that these hold their value and they do have value.”
