A week ago,\u00a0Roger Taylor, chairman of Ofqual, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph<\/i>\u00a0that<\/p>\n\"Calculations of grades by Ofqual was the fairest possible way to award marks. Basing grades only on teacher assessments \u201cwould create a perpetual unfairness between this year\u2019s grades compared to past and future generations.\"<\/h4>\n
This places fairness at the centre of the argument for what Ofqual did, which, you might think is reasonable enough as a fair test of an individual's ability, aptitude, suitability, etc is at the heart of public examinations; they are an Enlightenment project, after all.<\/p>\n
It has become very clear, however, that [i] fairness to the individual is not at the heart of what the regulator has done this year, and [ii] that many individuals have been treated very unfairly; generally speaking, those attending schools with large class sizes or in socially-deprived areas are prominent in this latter group. \u00a0For an insight into what the regulator did, and why certain schools were badly affected when others weren't, see this comment<\/a> from Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in today's Times. \u00a0It's difficult to read this and not ask, 'did no one realise the potential consequences?' \u00a0Well, of course, people and groups did, but their comments and suggestions were not acted on by Ofqual and its Board.<\/p>\n