Undod condemns the decision by the Welsh Government not to trust in our teachers and to assign grades instead on the basis of an algorithm endorsed by a Tory Government in Westminster.
This action has thrown into stark relief the structural inequalities that operate in our education system, and has further entrenched the biases that operate against the working class and the poorest parts of Wales and the wider UK.
We fully support the young members of Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog, the protesters at the Senedd, and all those young people across Wales who are taking action against our government and we stand with them in solidarity.
In the words of one Undod member Elspeth Webb, Professor in Child Health Care, and Child Rights activist: “Our young people have been sold the lie that we live in a meritocracy. Successive governments – in Wales and Westminster, Labour and Conservative – have blamed the poor educational outcomes of poor students on their own “poverty of ambition.” The government’s handling of exam results during the pandemic has exposed the dishonesty of their victim-blaming approach; these children are set up to fail at every turn.”
Our children have suffered enough in the last 5 months, and those who were in year 13 and year 11 have missed out on seminal parts of their childhood. We must not punish them further, and any government with a shred of humanity would do all they can to mitigate this loss. We call on the government to reverse this decision, to care for our children, and to trust in our teachers.