Welsh Government ‘U’ turn: teacher assessment will determine grades

Photo: Richard Swingler

Len Arthur writes: Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Government Minister for Education, has just announced a complete climb down. In the words of the statement “For grades issued last week, I have decided that all awards in Wales will also be made on the basis of teacher assessment.” Just last Friday 14 August Mark Drakeford the Welsh Government First Minister was defending the use of an algorithm that downgraded teacher assessments on the grounds that it ‘…would have devalued the award…’.

This outcome is exactly what a school student-organised petition was asking for and had attracted over 28,000 signatures from across Wales over the last three days. It is exactly what the 250 strong school student led demonstration in Cardiff on Sunday was demanding.

This is a victory for the school students, parents, families and education unions who rapidly organised the protest over the last few days. Moreover it is about restoring trust in the teaching profession which a Labour Welsh Government should never have abandoned in the first place.

We now have to make sure the same approach is taken with the GCSE results due out this week.

As Left Unity we have provided active social networking and other support for the campaign through People’s Assembly Wales. We were able to act fast and help the campaign to be effective. The very tactics that helped stop a local Welsh hospital A&E department from being downgraded last month.

The example of being prepared to fightback fast and hard must now be taken up by other people in Wales against redundancies, pay and conditions cuts, evictions, the continued threat of Covid, climate breakdown and racism. Radical social transformation for justice, people and the planet has to be our unifying aim.