Dudley Council education chief expecting record GCSE appeals (From Halesowen News)

Dudley Council education chief expecting record GCSE appeals

8:00am Friday 31st August 2012 in News

DUDLEY’S education boss says there may be many appeals in the offing after a number of borough school leavers were left with lower GCSE English grades than expected due to changes in the marking system.

Many schools celebrated good to best-ever results - with 80.8 per cent of pupils in the borough gaining five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C and 58.5 per cent achieving five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

But a number of youngsters expecting to gain a C in English were left with D grades due to last-minute changes to the marking of papers – which have been blamed on new directives from government education secretary Michael Gove.

Councillor Tim Crumpton, Dudley’s cabinet member for children’s services, said borough schools were investigating individual results amid the “appalling” controversy surrounding this year’s results.

He said: “There may be a great many appeals in the offing. In Dudley we are working closely with the schools and helping as much as we can.
“I find it appalling that this year’s GCSE results across the country are shrouded in so much controversy.

“If it is proved that Gove and his Daily Mail/Telegraph cohorts have changed goalposts to the extent that they aren’t on the same pitch then he should be sacked. If we get firm evidence we will take this issue up at a national level.”

The Labour councillor said he has never believed qualifications have been handed out “like Smarties” adding: “I have personally seen how hard our teachers work to give them an education that we should be proud of.

“My heart goes out to anyone who has had an unmerited disappointment.”