A level, AS, GCSE, Skills Challenge Certificate and Welsh Baccalaureate grades in Wales will now be awarded on the basis of Centre Assessment Grades, Education Minister Kirsty Williams confirmed today (Monday, August 17).

The minister said: “Working with Qualifications Wales and WJEC we have sought an approach which provides fairness and balances out differences in the standards applied to judgments in schools.

“Given decisions elsewhere, the balance of fairness now lies with awarding Centre Assessment grades to students, despite the strengths of the system in Wales.

“I am taking this decision now ahead of results being released this week, so that there is time for the necessary work to take place.

“For grades issued last week, I have decided that all awards in Wales, will also be made on the basis of teacher assessment.

“For those young people, for whom our system produced higher grades than those predicted by teachers, the higher grades will stand.

“Maintaining standards is not new for 2020, it is a feature of awarding qualifications every year in Wales, and across the UK.

“However, it is clear that maintaining confidence in our qualifications whilst being fair to students requires this difficult decision.

“These have been exceptional circumstances, and in due course I will be making a further statement on an independent review of events following the cancellation of this year’s exams.

“Other Awarding Bodies across the UK are involved in determining the approach to vocational qualifications. This continues to be the case but it is important that I give assurance to GCSE, AS and A level student at the earliest opportunity.”

Commenting on the changes to grading in Wales this year the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Cymru director Laura Does said today: “In the current circumstances it is right to trust the professional judgement of the people who know their students best, their teachers.

"NAHT Cymru made direct representations to the minister last week calling for her to revert to the centre assessment grades when it was first identified that there was a problem with the algorithm used by Qualifications Wales.

’’Although we welcome the decision, we don’t yet know what this delay will mean for students who have already missed out on their first choice of university.

’’This will undoubtedly load more and more difficulty onto universities and their capacity to meet all of the demand for places that will now inevitably come their way. For them, the problem is far from over.

“Everyone knew that this was going to be a difficult time and there is no perfect method by which to award grades, however, this decision will mean students expecting their GCSE results can have confidence that they will not experience the same unfairness or disadvantage as their older peers."