NASUWT comments on A-Level results

Commenting on the publication of A-level results, Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, said:

“Congratulations must go to pupils and their teachers who have worked so hard in uniquely challenging circumstances to secure today’s results.

“These grades are a reflection of the circumstances in which exams were held and it would be wrong and wholly inaccurate to compare these results to previous years or make comparisons about performance in relation to previous pupil cohorts.

“It will be essential for higher and further education providers and employers to recognise the challenges pupils have faced this year and to act sensitively when considering their place offers or offers of employment to young people.

“Young people due to sit qualifications next year have also faced substantial and relatively recent disruption to their learning that can and should be addressed in qualifications arrangements and in forms of wider support. This needs to include greater investment in education recovery.

“Government plans and funding for education recovery fall far below that seen in other comparable countries.

“The results achieved today were secured largely in spite of, rather than because of, the support received from Government for education recovery programmes.

“Teachers have pulled out all the stops for their pupils and after a decade of real terms pay erosion, deserve for their hard work to be matched with a restorative above-inflation pay award.”