Over 10,000 students from 14 countries sign petition against CIE results

A’ Levels results announced on August 11 have created doubts among students that grading was done incorrectly

KARACHI: If a student received a C grade in A’ Level Mathematics after securing an A* in Additional Mathematics, there is something wrong.

Mahnoor Ansari, who has initiated a petition against poor grading by the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), shared her concerns with others and found out that several students from across the world are upset with their results this year. Most of them feel they have been marked unfairly and that the marking is not up to their usual standards.

As a result, more than 10,000 students from 14 countries have signed a petition created by Ansari, a student of Beaconhouse in Lahore, in merely four days.

The A’ Levels results were announced on August 11 and have created doubts among students that the grading was done incorrectly all over the world.

The reason why Ansari felt her concerns were justified and not merely resulting from a personal grudge is because an organisation, The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), which regulated exams in the UK had claimed that the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) grading system “lacked understanding of marking”.

“There is inconsistency in markings all over the world for the past many years,” she pointed out. “They are just trying to make money since they charge Rs50,000 for a re-evaluation of papers,” Ansari told The Express Tribune. “Exam boards are ‘guess-timating’ grades rather than actually marking them,” she said, quoting a news article from the Telegraph.

A Biology teacher, Ali Raza, believed the CIE should review all the results. “There is something wrong with the results because we as teachers also know which students is capable of what,” he said. “The students from whom we were expecting As and A*s have dropped down to Cs and Ds.” Raza felt this was the first time that so many students were unhappy with their results.

Many students who had received conditional admission offers from universities such as Harvard and Cambridge are losing their places because they are not meeting the eligibility criterion now, explained Raza.

“How is it possible that students who scored As and Bs in mock exams have failed to make not even Cs in their final exams,” said another teacher.

CIE follows same procedure

Talking to The Express Tribune, CIE country director Uzma Yousuf Zaka said, “We have looked at this year’s grades for students in Pakistan and can confirm that this year’s grades are closely in line with last year’s.” She added that the CIE is trusted for providing a transparent, reliable and fair approach to assessment based on clear standards.

Zaka said she understood the significance of results day for students and, while many students were pleased with their results, others were concerned about securing lower grades than expected. “A key priority for us is to ensure that we maintain these standards year after year,” she explained. “To do this, we have followed the same robust and well-established procedures as previous years.”

If any school is concerned about their candidates’ results, they can make an enquiry about results using the CIE’s standard procedures, she added. “There is an administrative fee for each enquiry but the school will not be charged if it leads to a change in grade,” she explained.