Robbed of their schooling and forced into the fiercest of races for university places, this is surely the Covid generation’s unluckiest student cohort. In years to come the bruised and battle-hardened class of 2023 will always carry with them a sense of intergenerational injustice – whatever success most will go on to make of their lives. What made this summer’s wait for A-level results so nerve-shredding was the worst kept secret in education: the generous grade boundaries that softened the blow for previous victims of the Covid school closures would be cruelly removed for this, the biggest wave of university hopefuls in living memory.
England’s 2023 school leavers have every right to feel unfairly treated. Students from just across the Welsh or Scottish borders may have earned the same exam marks but have benefited from higher grades that can make all the difference in the great scramble for coveted degree places. One missed opportunity can change a life. Once more, the adults in charge have failed our younger generation. In the post-pandemic era, the dream that education could somehow act as the great social leveller seems a distant, laughable fantasy.
