Exam fury: ‘Students like me shouldn’t lose out because of the schools we go to.’

Lewis Wright is one of thousands of students who felt they were discriminated against by a predicted grades system used in the absence of traditional exams.

Critics said the system was rigged against working class pupils. The government was forced into a U-turn after it became clear that students who went to schools that didn’t have exam records as strong as others stood to lose out.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson blamed the exam regulator Ofqual for the issue after saying previously insisting there would be no change on the decision.

Lewis, a student at Outwood Grange Academy, said many of his fellow pupils were devastated by their results and felt devalued by the method.

He said: “The fact that a real person has not even looked at it is awful. I worked as hard as students from any background and area and the fact I have to suffer simply because of the school I go to is so unfair.

“When I went to pick them up and we all opened them everyone opened their envelopes and just broke down.

“There were literally people crying on the floor it was like something out of a movie.”

Lewis, 18, had earned a place at the University of York to study psychology.

The university said it would accept him even with the revised grades.

Wakefield NEU district secretary Sally Kincaid said: “This government and Ofqual should be ashamed of themselves.

“The absolute misery they have put this year’s A-level pupils through is shameful – snatching hopes and dreams away from thousands, because no matter how hard they and their teachers worked, the results they were given were based on their postcodes and the postcodes of their schools.”

Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan tweeted: “I’m pleased that Ofqual have accepted centre assessment grades, and have scrapped the standardisation algorithm.”

Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper said students’ dreamed were “ripped up” and it was right the government changed course.

She said: “Finally, finally the government has done the U-turn everyone has been calling for and gone back to teacher assessments - that will be a huge relief for many young people across our area.

“I’ve heard from many young people who were unfairly hit and had their dreams ripped up by what the government did. Ministers should never have put them through this nightmare in the first place.

“Choosing a system which benefited private school pupils but penalised hard working sixth form college students in towns like ours was deeply wrong.

“Ministers knew the consequences of their computer algorithm months ago and they also saw the crisis in Scotland but they were still too incompetent to act.” Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett said the downgrading would have affected working class students most of all.

He said: “Since 2010, schools in the Wakefield district have suffered educational funding losses that equate to £390 per pupil. I am glad the government has listened to the cries of outrage and performed this U-turn. Hopefully this generation of young people who have already suffered due to Covid-19 and the lockdown, will now be able to start planning for their future.”