EDUCATION minister Kirsty Williams has apologised "directly and unreservedly" for the effect the controversial A-level grading system had on students.

Ms Williams said she is "truly sorry" for the debacle, in which the system used to calculate results led to 42 per cent of A-level grades in Wales being downgraded.

The Welsh Government - in line with all the other UK nations - made a u-turn yesterday abandoning the system and falling back on teachers' assessments for grades.

In a social media video and in evidence to the Senedd education select committee, Ms Williams acknowledged that the situation had made an already stressful time worse for many students.

"Recent months have thrown up unexpected, new and complex challenges," she said.

"Working with Qualifications Wales and the WJEC we looked for an approach which provided fairness and balanced out differences in the standards applied to judgments in schools.

"But, as I announced yesterday, and given decisions elsewhere, the balance of fairness now lies with awarding centre assessment grades to students."

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Teacher assessed grades will now be used for this week's GCSE results, along with AS-levels, skills challenge certificates and the Welsh Baccalaureate.

Ms Williams told the committee she was not informed of the scale of the impact of using the moderation algorithm system for A-level results until three days before the results were announced.

She admitted that she and other ministers had been concerned, particularly over whether pupils receiving free school meals might be disproportionately affected.

Examinations board WJEC supplied information on that issue to Qualifications Wales, which she said she received the day before the results came out.

Torfaen MS Lynne Neagle, who chairs the committee, thanked Ms Williams for her apology but said members need to know what the Welsh Government is doing "to make sure this does not happen again".

"No one can predict if or when we may see another lockdown like this one, so we must learn from these experiences and avoid the confusing, confidence-sapping decisions we have seen over the last few weeks," she said.