Westminstenders: PreGrades (Minority Report comes to the UK)

[RedToothBrush]

In Aug 2020, London, DC's prototype 'PreGrades' launched from the education department stops plebs before they go to university, reducing the social mobility rate to zero percent. Social mobility is predicted using specialized mutated humans, called "Teachers", who "predict" grades by marking shit lots of course work and exams over a period of years. Would-be social climbers are knocked down in a computer algorithm which distorts reality and hits the disadvantaged hardest. Central government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program nationwide by applying it in all departments from the DWP, the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Department of Justice to predict benefit fraud, getting sick asylum seeking and crime before it occurs.

DC's vision of the future is based on excellence being genetically ingrained into the elite but he must sell this vision to the unsuspecting public in a series of public votes which rely on the idea of the 'undeserving'. Little do they know that they too will be the victims of this plan until a mysterious bug appears and only the wealthy and well connected are able to get hold of adequate PPE and they are no longer able to buy bog roll nor retire to Spain as they had previously and endless queues for pizza form near Kent.

I don’t think crammers are so different to other schools particularly 6th form colleges.
They are another world
eye wateringly expensive for a start

I did Art as an extra GCSE. A few hours after school when I could be bothered each week. Got a B. I wanted to take it but there wasn't room on my timetable and no-one gave me a time turner.

I did French and German A-levels in one year, after Highers, as my school offered some subjects as SYS and some as A-levels. I was the only person in my school doing them, and no one had done them for several years... v. weird. God knows what the algorithm would have done with my results.

I did an Italian O-grade the same year, for some reason.

It was doable, though I had to do quite a lot of work on the lit and history syllabus. My German teacher cocked up quite spectacularly, as she didn't twig that the 1990 syllabus was a 2-year one and so would be examined in 1992. I sat the 1991 exam: for the history section, the syllabus was a bit different.
Luckily, I'd read enough to fudge an essay on Kristallnacht and still get an A, but I can remember wondering why on earth that had come up. When I left the exam room, she was waiting for me outside, in a right tizz.

My dad did one year A levels, it was quite normal in ok Scottish schools.
My school was too poor to offer this so I ended up doing unsupported sixth years studies.
I say unsupported but actually the Biology teacher let the two of us study at the back of his other classes and would try and help us.
An English teacher actually shared things he had written in his spare time to help my analysis.
So they did what they could without any budget or formal teaching time.
It is so wrong that dc from these schools have been hit hardest.

@ListeningQuietly

I don’t think crammers are so different to other schools particularly 6th form colleges. They are another world eye wateringly expensive for a start

There are other more expensive schools. They don’t compare to boarding schools. At crammers you’re not paying for frills like team sports, school plays, music departments etc.

Personally I’d like to see 6th form colleges widely offering similar services to to crammers - retakes, A levels in a year, to increase flexibility.

It is so wrong that dc from these schools have been hit hardest

I’m still struggling with wth Offqual were thinking. It can’t have been intentional surely that they would penalise state schools students. Did they think we wouldn’t notice? They were warned apparently from the get go so they can’t claim they didn’t know this would happen?

If anyone thinks they’d have the answer I’d love to know.

They are treating incompetence as an art form, TatianaBis. Perhaps they’re hoping to win the Turner Prize?

Ofqual

Or a Darwin Award?

Incompetence can be amusing in the right context, but here they’re taking a whole school year down with them.

I'd like to think staff at Ofqual are currently looking at the GCSE results and screaming in panic, but honestly... They probably aren't. At least, the decision makers aren't - I'm sure everyday employees care.

PMK for tomorrow - noting further Cumming's relentless desire to "think outside the box" seems to be now in full freefall nosedive with exam results. Given his only version of "think outside the box" appears to be "get data and let a computer do it" I think we can see where 2021 is headed.

P.s dating going v v well. No euphemism here at all but today he washed my dog .

Pmk. Seems ofqual divided half want to Chuck out algorithm and award CAGS. Gavin digging heels in or rather DC and grammar schools kicking off saying grades dropped by 6% on previous years and talk of delaying gcses because said algorithm will be much worse. There are over 2 million sitting gcses. You couldn't make this shit up!

You couldn’t make this shit up
The anthem of the last four years...

Tory MPs getting frightened - for their seats - and putting pressure on BJ & WIlliamson ?

Mass student protests and legal challenges

I'm glad this story isn't going away. This government's tactic is usually say nothing and wait until people move on. They can't keep getting away with it, surely.

They can't.

The GCSEs will just pile the pain on.

It's not as if they weren't forewarned with what happened in Scotland - and were given a route out.

But they couldn't possibly consider anything similar as that was the nasty SNP who did it

And while all this is going on, young people are suffering

It can’t have been intentional surely that they would penalise state schools students. Did they think we wouldn’t notice?

Penalising state school children was an unlooked for bonus, I imagine, and since all state school people are thick oiks then they probably did think we wouldn't notice. Although Gavin himself is a state school product.

@prettybird

They can't.

The GCSEs will just pile the pain on.

It's not as if they weren't forewarned with what happened in Scotland - and were given a route out.

But they couldn't possibly consider anything similar as that was the nasty SNP who did it

And while all this is going on, young people are suffering

FIL was telling me all about how Scotland had messed up and how awful education is in Scotland. I know there's a small amount of truth in that but I had to point out to him that English education ain't all that great either. This was before Thursday. I'd love to discuss it again now. Especially as MIL is a teacher (but a small private school).

Promoted above his ability?

Best message on here by far is: He washed my dog.

Fingers and toes crossed....

Fortunately ds is already at Uni (was in 2nd year when lockdown started and is now going into the Honours years of his MA) so is not directly impacted but I can only speak highly of his experience of Scottish schooling (inner city State school)

They should have at least released A level results earlier to give some time to sort things out before the university term started. They didn't need to do any marking this year.

The universities could have asked each student for their CAG score and used the better of the two results. Some would have been given CAGs which didn't meet their UCAS prediction, so they wouldn't have gained their places anyway, so it's not forced to have led to massive grade inflation.

I can't help wondering what ranking Johnson would have been awarded in his A level year - knowing that he was a bright lad but a lazy arse who couldn't be bothered.