Organisers of a protest in Bristol against the Government handling of A-Level and GCSE grades say the event is still going ahead.
Hundreds of students and teachers are expected to turn out at College Green on Friday (August 21) to protest about the way the Government's exam regulator used an algorithm which marked down pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The widespread national protest and backlash prompted a U-turn by the Government earlier this week, but the event on Friday is still going ahead.
The student organisers, from Bristol's schools and from the city's branch of the National Education Union, said that instead, the event would be a celebration of forcing that U-turn, but also a demo to demand reform of the education system, and also demanding that schools are safe from coronavirus when they are due back in September.
"We will be there to celebrate their victory and demand that they receive the right to revert to their university of choice," said Tom Bolton, from Bristol NEU.
"We welcome the statement from the protest organisers that they are also demanding safe school conditions when we return in September.
"Students’ and educators’ demands are the same; students’ learning conditions are educators’ working conditions," he added.
Students organised the demo last week when the scale of the injustice of the A-level marks through an algorithm became clearer and there were fears GCSE results would be similarly affected.
The Government's U-turn earlier this week meant student grades were the ones given by teachers, not by the exam regulators through the algorithm.
"We commend the young people of Bristol who have spent the last week protesting against the Government's and Ofqual's decision to downgrade A level results based on an algorithm," added Mr Bolton.
"As educators, we were shocked at the injustice inflicted on A Level students and suffered days of stress fearing what the algorithm would then deal out to our GCSE students.
"The algorithm revealed what we already knew: poorer, racialised and SEND students are more likely to be branded failures. Students in smaller classes and better funded schools were more likely to achieve higher algorithmic grades.
"Its application went against everything all educators know: all young people are individuals with the capacity to transcend barriers and achieve self-actualisation through education.
"The algorithm was a racist and classist blunt instrument that reduced young individuals into metrics based ultimately on their name, neighbourhood, background, accent and skin colour.
"Your postcode should never determine your educational outcomes," he added.
Now the protest on Friday lunchtime at College Green will be a celebration, organisers said, and a call for schools to receive the support they need to be properly Covid-secure by the time students go back in September.
