The YCL condemns the latest scandalous Government attack on the rights and living conditions of Britain’s working students and urges the youth to organise from their schools and communities and resist this unjust declaration of results.

In this latest fiasco, almost 40% of pupils’ predicted results went down by 1 or 2 grades according to an algorithm based on “statistics, historic outcomes and the expected national distribution of grades”.

In other words, it was based on predictions, not on the reality of students’ achievements.

This is a far cry from the real life circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic in which the Government has demonstrated criminal negligence, disregard for human life and a huge lack of strategic planning that could see Britain beat the virus.

Our young people have been out of school and suffering enormously as a result of the pandemic, whether with the loss of jobs, family members or deterioration in mental health.

While private schools saw an improvement of almost 5% in top A* and A grades, the most deprived schools and communities saw the biggest downgrades.

Those who were downgraded, some by two or more grades, have in many cases lost their university or job offers with no explanation or justification offered.

What does this say about the present system in Britain?

It seems that the few pupils with a glut of wealth and social privilege will continue to coast into the most elite universities and highest paying jobs, whereas the rest of Britain’s youth and their futures are expendable.

The proposed solutions as part of the ‘triple lock system’ are also woefully inadequate. Public examinations were officially cancelled on 20 March, almost five months ago, and most students officially finished lessons at the start of May.

In that time, the Government has given no clarification on exactly how and when students would be able to sit Autumn exams were they dissatisfied with their results.

Nonetheless, they expected students to continue self-studying without the knowledge of whether or not they would even have to sit an exam.

The laughably late addition of giving students the option to substitute their mock results still falls short, as students have to wait up to six weeks for their appeal to go through, by which time many students will have missed out on the start of their university term or have their place filled by another student and therefore lost through no fault of their own.

Since it was elected at the end of last year, this Government has fast developed a special track record for savaging the rights, conditions and livelihoods of Britain’s young workers and students. As we enter economic recession, these attacks will become even more acute.

We refuse to accept this as the “new norm”.

We demand:

Finally, we need to listen to and directly involve Britain’s youth in the overhaul of our unjust, classist and profit-driven education system.

An education revolution is clearly needed now more than ever. It is high time that education is recognised as the human right that it ought to be, rather than a commodity that is bought and paid for.

Privatisation, atomisation and the drive for profit are decimating the education system for Britain’s youth. We need and want a fully accessible, high-quality education from school all the way to university and technical studies.

But we won’t get this without fighting for it.

We urge Britain’s young people to organise and join the mass movement for progressive change, not only to resist and overturn this latest scandal, but to continue to push forward and halt the consistent ruling class offensive.

This has been an unprecedented year for many of Britain’s youth, and it must be met with an unprecedented and renewed commitment to hope for and fight for a better future, starting today.

Scrap the unjust results!

Build the mass movement and resistance!

For peace, jobs and Socialism in our lifetime!

Executive Committee
Young Communist League

16 August 2020
London, Britain

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