Like thousands of other 18-year-olds, Jasminder is counting down to Thursday morning with some trepidation. Waiting for her at her east London comprehensive will be an envelope containing not only her A-level results but also a verdict on how she and her peers have weathered three years of grim educational adversity.
They will find out whether they are on course for the university experience they have been plotting all year, or whether their hopes will be dashed – brutally through little fault of their own.
Jasminder’s cohort is facing a triple whammy of uncertainty come A-level results day in England. What will be the fallout of chequered pandemic-style learning, teacher strike action and the Government’s insistence on restoring the exam results landscape back to its pre-Covid norm?
And those from the poorest households will feel the brunt of it all, experts have warned i.
It is all headed for “an attainment shitshow” for 2023’s university intake, according to the blunt assessment of one senior sixth form teacher, who was referring to the fact that some 50,000 of this year’s students will miss out on the top A* and A grades that they would otherwise have been awarded had they sat their exams last year.
