A-Level results - record number of high grades awarded

A-level results have just been published, and almost half of all students have been awarded an A or A*. If anyone thought the pandemic might have negatively affected students` education, these results seem to allay such fears.

An astonishing 44.8% of all A-Level grades have been for the highest marks possible - that`s up from 25.5% in 2019, when students last sat formal exams.

Students` grades this year have been based on teachers` predictions, after the Department for Education declared that they `know students best`. With exams cancelled for a second year there were limited options for thousands of pupils, many of whom have have their entire GCSE or A-Levels blighted by the pandemic.

19.1% of students were awarded an A* - up from 14.3% in 2020 - a huge increase from the 7.8% of 2019. 25.7% of students received an A grade - thats up from 24.2% in 202, and 17.7% in 2019.

Despite many questioning the validity of these grades, The education secretary Gavin Williamson has strongly defended the results, saying the pandemic has caused huge disruption to education, and students have worked hard to overcome the obstacles, and `deserve to be rewarded.`

He has been critical towards anyone questioning the high proportion of A and A* grands, saying that no one should `undermine or question the value` of the marks that have been awarded.

Students have certainly faced extreme difficulties over the last 18 months, and Gavin Williamson has said they should be praised for their `resilience and determination` in not letting the pandemic stand in the way of them reaching their full potential.

Private schools have seen the greatest increase in their highest grades since 2019, with an astonishing 70.1% of all A-Level results being an A or A*. Thats compared to 44% in the year before the pandemic hit.

Comprehensive schools also saw a sharp rise in the highest grades, albeit far lower compared to private schools - 39.3% of pupils at comprehensive or state schools received A or A* grades, up from 20% in 2019. For grammar schools 56.6% of pupils received the highest A Level grades, up from 36.1% before the pandemic.

Those children who began their A-levels in 2018 or 2019 have suffered a terrible disruption to their  education. Of course education across all year groups has been negatively affected, but it is those in the upper year groups, whose exams have been cancelled, that have most keenly felt the disorder caused by the pandemic. A method of grading these tens of thousands of students had to be found, and though the chosen method - with their teachers assessing their work - was questioned by many, it may well have been the best option available.

Almost every year GCSE and A level students have to suffer the indignity of being told the grades they have received have become depreciated, that the A or B grade they have been awarded would only count for a C grade in the past. We should aim to spare students such a discreditation this year, seeing as they have been thorough so much. Remote learning, cancelled exams, repeated lockdowns, being separated from their peers - these are hardships which will have been hard to bear. Being a teenager over the last 18 months will have taught them much. The difficulties and uncertainties caused by the pandemic may well have left them more resilient, and better able to face challenges in the future. That in itself is the very definition of good education.