Boris Johnson has blamed a “mutant” algorithm for the exam results fiasco and told pupils in England he was “very glad” the situation had been sorted out.
During a live address to pupils at a secondary school in east Midlands this afternoon,he told the audience that “I’m afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm,” he told them,” said Johnson. “I know how stressful that must have been for pupils up and down the country.I’m very, very glad that it has finally been sorted
out.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “It is brazen of the prime minister to idly shrug away a disaster that his own government created.Parents, students, teachers and heads will be horrified to see the leader of this country treat his own exams fiasco like some minor passing fad.The public will not easily forget the emotional rollercoaster of this year’s results season. It is certain to put a long-lasting dent in the government’s reputation on education.”
Shadow education Secretary Kate Green said that the “Responsibility for this shambles lies squarely with Downing Street and the Department for Education, who set out how they wanted the algorithm to work and were warned weeks in advance of issues, but repeatedly refused to address the problems they had created.It is this Tory government’s incompetence that is to blame for the exams fiasco.”
