Keir Starmer condemns last-minute A-level changes in England

Keir Starmer has condemned last-minute changes to the A-level appeals system as “complete fiasco”, after the schools minister Nick Gibb conceded they would only affect “a small group of pupils”.

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced changes late on Tuesday night, after the Scottish government was forced to restore the exam grades of more than 120,000 students marked down by a computer algorithm.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Gibb confirmed that students in England would be allowed to contest individual results – via their school – and that past performance in mock exams would be one basis for such an appeal.

But he said: “It will only apply to a small group of people; it is just another source of evidence on which they can base an appeal.”

Starmer said: “This is complete fiasco. It was obvious that this was going to be difficult but it’s been weeks or months in the coming. To have an 11th-hour decision that’s caused widespread chaos amongst teachers I have been speaking to, families and young people – it smacks of incompetence.”

Speaking in Wakefield, where he has been visiting businesses, he added: “It’s shambolic. It’s hours to go before the results. The problem is obvious and it’s been sitting there for weeks or months.”

With 24 hours to go before A-level results are published, Starmer’s criticism was echoed by university leaders and teachers, who will have to grapple with the changes.

Julia Buckingham, of Universities UK, said: “This last-minute policy change presents a number of challenges for universities and we are seeking urgent clarification from the Department for Education on a range of issues including the likely scale and timing of appeals.”

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The idea of introducing at the 11th hour a system in which mock exam results trump calculated grades beggars belief. If the government wanted to change the system, it should have spent at least a few days discussing the options rather than rushing out a panicked and chaotic response.”

In a press release sent out at 11.30pm on Tuesday as the government scrambled to avoid a Scotland-style backlash, the Department for Education (DfE) said students unhappy with their grades would be able to “appeal to receive a valid mock result”.

Ministers have asked Ofqual, England’s exams regulator, to “determine how and when valid mock results can be used to calculate grades”.

Ofqual had previously not allowed individual appeals. The DfE has also announced £30m for schools to pay entry fees for the extra set of A-level and GCSE exams being held in autumn.

Related: Ministers bid to quell revolt over England A-levels by allowing mock exam results

A-level results in England are due to be announced on Thursday, calculated on a similar basis to Scotland’s. Teachers’ predictions have been moderated by a model that takes into account factors including past school performance.

“Most people can rely on this standardisation model in delivering the right result,” said Gibb, stressing that without the computer-aided moderation, there would have been grade inflation of 12%.

He underscored the government’s continued confidence in the system, despite the fiasco in Scotland, which has led to calls for the Scottish education secretary, John Swinney, to resign.

“It is a robust, it is a fair system. Tomorrow, students can be confident that the grades they receive are a fair reflection of their ability and their work, and that those qualifications will have value,” Gibb said.

He also confirmed that, as the Guardian reported last week, 40% of grades had been downgraded by the standardisation model.

“The majority of students tomorrow will get the grades submitted by their teacher, and of those 40% that are adjusted, it will be just by one grade,” he said.

Williamson claimed the changes represented a “triple lock”: because students can accept the grade they are given; appeal on the basis of their mock grade; or resit that subject in the autumn.

But the Education Policy Institute thinktank said the phrase was unhelpful. “The government is in danger of creating confusion for students, parents and universities by talking of a “triple lock”, including the implied option for students to choose to receive their “mock” grade. In fact, the use of a mock grade seems to only be part of an appeals process, rather than being a guarantee.

The president of the National Union of Students, Larissa Kennedy, said: “The use of mock exams results risks making a mockery of the whole system, given the lack of a standard approach to mock exams and the fact they are not taken by all candidates.”