Education secretary’s A-level results comments branded ‘downright rude’

The government’s education secretary has been branded “downright rude” after she said employers would not even ask about pupils’ A-levels a decade from now.

As students across the country opened their exam results, Gillian Keegan was quizzed over an expected fall in grades this year and characterised the drop as the system going “back to normal” after the pandemic.

“Somebody asked me, ‘What will people ask you in 10 years’ time?’” she told broadcaster GB News.

open image in gallery

“They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time. They will ask you about other things you have done since then: what you have done in the workplace, what you did at university.”

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said suggesting that qualifications would not be relevant was “plain wrong” and “downright rude”, adding: “She’s talking down England’s young people, and she needs to apologise.”

The opposition spokesperson added: “This is a nerve-wracking day for young people who’ve worked incredibly hard. The last thing that they need is the secretary of state offering comments like that, and it really does add insult to injury coming from a government that completely failed to put in place the kind of support that our young people needed coming out of the pandemic after all of the disruption they’d experienced.”

Ms Keegan, however, defended the comments and said her claim was “just real”.

Students who took their A-levels during the Covid pandemic did not sit exams and were given teacher-assessed grades instead.

Some elements of teachers’ assessments were retained for students until last year, but pupils in England have now reverted to exams.

There are concerns that this year’s cohort could be disadvantaged when compared to students who sat their exams in the previous two years, when grades were inflated.

But Ms Keegan insisted that the expected fall in grades in England was fair, despite exam regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland saying they do not expect to return to pre-pandemic grading until 2024.

open image in gallery

“The whole grading system will be back to normal and so the universities will calibrate to that,” she told Sky News.

“We have worked with the universities so they understand it, with the admissions officers. And also with businesses, so they understand it.

“Everybody knows that these are different conditions to the teacher-assessed grades, and even last year, which was partway between the two systems, more similar to what they have done in Northern Ireland and Wales.”

The Liberal Democrats also hit out at Ms Keegan’s comments, telling reporters that she was “grossly out of touch”.

Munira Wilson, the party’s education spokesperson, said: “Her department needs to get a grip on our education system and apologise for the unhealed damage caused by the pandemic. No child should be left behind or forced to miss out on a university place because of the Conservatives’ incompetence.”

Bu the education secretary defended her comments, telling reporters at the City of London Academy Islington: “It is true, it is just real.”

The cabinet minister added: “It’s an important step to get to your next destination, but when you’re a couple of destinations further on there’ll be other things that they look at.”