The British prime minister Boris Johnson has fired his chief education civil servant amid anger over the handling of exam results in recent weeks and a series of U-turns related to schooling. The departure of Jonathan Slater came only a day after the resignation of Sally Collier, the head of England’s exam regulator Ofqual. The sacking immediately led to accusations that Mr Johnson was trying to deflect blame away from his own administration’s poor handling of the crisis. <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/a-levels-uk-government-to-fund-grade-appeals-in-england-1.1064017">The government was forced to scrap</a> the use of a controversial algorithm that gave many A-Level and GCSE pupils lower grades than those predicted for them by their teachers. Gavin Williamson, the education minister, remains in his job despite widespread calls for him to quit. Mr Johnson blamed the “mutant algorithm” on Wednesday for the exam grades disruption and told students at a school in England that it was important that they returned to class. “The risk to your health is not from Covid because, statistically speaking, your chances of suffering from that disease are very, very low,” he said. “The greatest risk you face now is continuing to be out of school.” In announcing the departure of Mr Slater, a government statement said that Mr Johnson had decided that it was time for fresh leadership. But Dave Penman, the head of FDA, a union that represents top civil servants, hit out at the government move. “If it wasn’t clear before, then it certainly is now – this administration will throw civil service leaders under a bus without a moment’s hesitation to shield ministers from any kind of accountability,” Mr Penman said. “Those who have dedicated their lives to public service are being discarded without hesitation to keep scrutiny from the government’s door,” he said. “While the origins of the exams fiasco may be complex, the solutions for this government are simple: scapegoating civil servants. Ministerial accountability is dead and the message to civil servants is that they are expendable the moment life gets tough for a minister.” The opposition Labour Party also condemned the decision, also saying that the government was scapegoating civil servants. In another government U-turn this week, it was announced that pupils must wear face masks in communal areas of secondary schools in England in places with local lockdowns.