The A-level algorithm chaos reveals society’s racist, classist biases

Over the last few days, social media has been ablaze with stories of injustice and heartache, centred around the government’s mishandling of the A-level grading system. Students all across the UK had missed out on their university places because of a flawed algorithm that gave students from areas where people had historically performed well good grades, and those from areas with poor performance lower ones. Privately educated young people benefited the most – statistics from exam regulator Ofqual show that the number of A and above grades increased by 4.7 per cent among students in private schools compared to 2019, while state sixth-form and further education institutions rose just 0.3 per cent.

Despite today’s U-turn, which saw education secretary Gavin Williamson announce that students will now be given their predicted grades, a lot can be learned from this fiasco: the destructive power of algorithms, the problems with being governed by a disconnected elite, and the power of young people to bring social change.

The decision to use predicted grades will be welcomed by thousands of students, many of whom have missed out on university places or took clearing spots based on their first results. Thousands took both to social media and protested in the streets, proclaiming ‘Fuck the algorithm’. There’s more issues thrown up even still – studies show that consistently we Black students are under-predicted by our teachers, and the same goes for our working class peers. Clearly, this entire scenario is reflective of deep inequalities and failures in our education system. Clearly, long-term change and transformation is needed.

The impact of this year's grading system was not felt equally. The 40 per cent of downgrading of grades has hit the most disadvantaged state school students hardest. All the while, private schools have seen the largest spike in A/A* grades. This week's results scandal is not only a story of cruelty and incompetence, but also one that offers a glimpse into a future where, with racist and classist consequences, algorithms have increasing power over important aspects of our lives – from employment, to healthcare, and housing.

Algorithms are going to decide more and more the shape of our lives in the near future. The A-level results debacle has revealed sharply their capacity to deepen the classism and racism that exists in our society. Because algorithms are constructed by people, with all of their biases and prejudices. Soon, algorithms will be deciding which political advertisements you see, how your application to your dream job is screened, and how police officers are deployed in your neighbourhood. 

“Algorithms are going to decide more and more the shape of our lives in the near future. The A-level results debacle has revealed sharply their capacity to deepen the classism and racism that exists in our society”

The injustice of algorithms is not always clear. We sometimes never know how they’re affecting us, how they are designed, and by who. This means our capacity to act when they’re hurting marginalised communities and reinforcing inequality is severely reduced. It’s vital we pressure corporations, governments, and other groups to be democratic and cognisant over their capacity for injustice. It’s easy to see when judges sentence Black people for longer, or teachers underpredict us. There’s no person to act against when it’s a computer doing it. Algorithms are created by people with biases and prejudices, so often, they reflect them. 

What happened last week must force us to question why those who govern us are so detached from our lived realities. Most of us have never set foot – let alone attended – a private school. Yet overwhelmingly, those who have jobs in this country's most powerful institutions are privately educated. Boris Johnson, the prime minister, attended the £42,00 per year Eton college and Rishi Sunak, his most likely successor, the £32,700 per year Winchester College. If we want a better, fairer, more equal country we need to change our broken political system which gives us election after election governments only looking out for the powerful and forget the powerless.

“The government's U-turn is clearly not rooted in a desire to do what is right for young people, but instead, the result of intense pressure from pupils, their families, and teachers as well as the media”

The government's U-turn is clearly not rooted in a desire to do what is right for young people, but instead, the result of intense pressure from pupils, their families, and teachers as well as the media. The government absolutely has the capacity to build a truly equal education system: they could create a university admissions system where students apply after they receive their A-level predictions, rather than the current prediction system that fails Black and working class students. They could properly fund state schools to bridge the gap between the quality of private and state schooling. These are issues of political will.  

But above all else, what we’ve just seen is the power of young people, and the wider public, to bring out social change. Ahead of us, in the coming decade, is a series of crises. We have a broken economic model which privatises profits and socialises losses, we have the looming existential threat of climate change, and we have a crisis of systemic racism. It’s within the hands of the powerful to make the political decisions to implement a green new deal, to build a properly funded welfare state, to tackle systemic racism. It’s our job to mount pressure. The victory of this week's A-level students shows that true power belongs to the people. It’s time we mobilise in mass numbers to bring about the radical change we desperately need.

Watch high school leavers from our Class of COVID-19 series about students affected by the pandemic react to results day 2020 below.