*** UPDATE***

Since this statement was issued yesterday afternoon, the Minister for Education, Peter Weir, has announced that all GCSE grades will be based on teachers’ assessments

***

Ahead of the announcement of GCSE grades later this week, Workers Party spokesperson Nicola Campbell has called on the Education Minister and the Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) not to compound the fiasco they created around A Level grades, but instead to “abandon the algorithm model and put your trust in teachers”.

The Minster and the CCEA cannot continue to defend the indefensible”, Nicola said. “The academic future of thousands of local pupils is at stake and those involved in last week’s grades fiasco should admit that they got it wrong and place their faith in the judgement of the teachers and the grades that they have assessed”, she said.

“Scotland has already reviewed its decision on the awarding of grades and  England has introduced the ‘triple lock’, but the Minister of Education here doggedly refuses to even recognise the problem he has helped to create or the inequity which it is causing” Nicola pointed out

“The awarding of GCSE grades under the existing system will be made all the worse by the heavy reliance on the past performance of the school, dismissing the efforts of this year’s pupils”, she said

“If anyone doubted the class nature of education then this is a wakeup call”

“This represents a blatant and deliberate policy of a leg up for high achieving  schools at the expense of the pupils from more socially disadvantage backgrounds, further compounding the gap between the two” said Nicola.

“This is grossly unfair of those students awaiting their results. The Minister must act immediately; recognise the expertise and competence of our teachers and base GCSE grades on their professional judgements”, Nicola concluded.