More than 124,000 exam results in Scotland are to be revised up after teachers’ marks were controversially downgraded. But Professor Carl Lygo, Vice-Chancellor of Arden University, warned on Times Radio that the UK Government could now face a “litigation minefield” from angry pupils and parents.
He told listeners: “I think this is a massive, massive move.
“I’ve just spoken with insiders at the Department of Education who’ve described the Scottish move as reckless.
“They’ve pointed to the fact that some schools are getting A*s for the first time so they think that teachers are being over-generous.
“I think that clearly indicates that England isn’t going to be following the same approach, which is using the teacher predictions.”
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Professor Lygo continued: “This is going to be a real shame because we’re going to have students applying to university on this island with different standards having been applied for entry.
“It’s just a recipe for disaster, this is a litigation minefield.
“There is just so much that is going to come out of this if the Government doesn’t retreat from using an algorithm to make decisions on A-level grades in England.
“We’ve now got a precedent in Scotland using a similar algorithm that has now been politically overturned so schools should be supporting their pupils and submitting an appeal.”
John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, was forced to apologise to Scottish students over the fiasco surrounding exam results.
Mr Swinney, who is facing a vote of no confidence from Parliament, was accused of allowing the “disgraceful” outcome.
The Education Secretary claimed that there is no evidence that young people from deprived communities have been disadvantaged.
He was initially backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, but both have now been forced into apologies and a humiliating U-turn.
Mr Swinney defended his comments about deprived communities, claiming that in higher education the pass rate for pupils in the most deprived areas increased by 4.6 percent while for the least deprived, it increased by 2.4.
