BTec results pulled, as pupils receive GCSE grades

Exam board Pearson has announced that it will be re-grading BTecs in line with GCSEs and A-levels, meaning BTec students will no longer be receiving their results on 20 August.

Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get GCSE grades given by their schools, after a flawed algorithm was scrapped in a series of U-turns. This follows outrage after 40 per cent of A-level grades were downgraded by exams regulators.

The decision by Pearson, which offers BTecs to 250,00 students, including around 100,000 sixth formers who take them as a vocational equivalent to A-levels, is expected to affect approximately 500,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom received their A-level equivalent qualifications last week.

In a statement, Pearson said their results ‘had been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A-levels’.

Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said the delays in revising BTecs were ‘totally unacceptable’.

Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “Pearson has rightly written to schools and colleges to say that their priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTEC students in relation to A Levels and GCSEs and that no BTEC student is disadvantaged.

“However, this late notification will cause very significant challenges for schools, trusts and colleges. It is simply unacceptable that some of the most disadvantaged students will not receive their grades tomorrow and that nothing has been done to correct this over the past few days. Teachers and leaders will do everything they can to be the voice of reassurance and support tomorrow and to help young people secure places at the college, apprenticeship provider or employer of their choice.

“I am certain that sixth form and further education colleges, apprenticeship providers and employers will exercise leniency and flexibility in working with schools and colleges to make this happen. After all the confusion of the last week, this situation could and should have been avoided.”