Students in A-level fiasco 'not told why they failed'

Hundreds of A-level candidates have been left with an inadequate explanation as to why they were given low grades for their work last summer, an academic claims today.

Dr Sheila Lawlor, of the right-wing think-tank Politeia, says in a pamphlet that the inquiry into the A-level fiasco "ignored one of the most serious allegations made".

Nearly 1,000 candidates sitting last summer's exams were astounded that they had been given U (unclassified) grades for coursework despite getting A grades for the other five units of their exam work and being given top marks by their own teachers for the work in question.

In his report on the A-level crisis, Mike Tomlinson, the former chief schools inspector appointed to carry out the inquiry, said that the so-called "rogue" grades were either a result of sloppy marking or students performing unexpectedly badly on the day. As a result, they did not fall within the remit of his inquiry.

However, Dr Lawlor says in the think-tank's pamphlet entitled A-levels: Fiasco and Future: "On the whole, schools are no wiser about the circumstances of the re-marking of a candidate's work inexplicably from A to U."