A-levels: Luton student fluent in Spanish downgraded
- Published
Ramy Mikhail's mother Bev Fortune feels the downgrading of her son's results is unfair
A student has missed out on his university place after his Spanish A-Level was downgraded from A* to B despite having grown up in Spain and being fluent in the language.
Luton Sixth Form College student Ramy Mikhail, 18, had been predicted to get A*, A*, A*, A, but education watchdog Ofqual gave him A*, A, A, B.
His mother Bev Fortune said the "unfair" system must be changed.
The Department for Education said an "enhanced appeal process" was in place.
After exams were cancelled because of the pandemic, grades were awarded using a modelling system - with the key factors being the ranking order of pupils and the previous exam results of schools and colleges.
Luton Sixth Form College principal Altaf Hussain said 41% of his students had seen their marks downgraded
Ms Fortune said that because of the downgrade, Ramy has been told he has failed to get a place at the University of Warwick, where he was due to study mathematics.
"We are feeling very disappointed. He was expected to do really well. Spanish we thought was a dead cert because he is fluent in Spanish. He was born in and went to school in Spain. We came back for GCSEs," she said.
College principal Altaf Hussain said 41% of his students had seen their marks downgraded and colleges had been particularly hit by the algorithm used to decide grades.
'Standardisation ensures fairness'
"Something has gone wrong. This year's A-Level results in sixth form colleges do not reflect their centre assessed grades (CAGs)," he said.
"On top of this, the top A-Level grades have soared at private schools as sixth form colleges lose out. The number of grades at A and above rose by 4.7 points in private schools but by just 0.3 points at colleges."
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: "Standardisation ensures grades are fair for students - without it, we would see results that were substantially inflated, significantly undermining their value.
"I know there are some really difficult cases, and we have already put support in place to help those students, including an enhanced appeal process."
