Btec students to begin receiving revised grades

By Jess Glass and Alexander Britton, PA

Students will begin receiving their Btec results from Tuesday after exam board Pearson delayed their publication.

Grading for the vocational qualifications was delayed to give the board more time to recalculate the grades after A-level and GCSE results were based on teacher estimates.

Hundreds of thousands of Btec students were told just hours before results day that they would not receive their results.

Pearson later said the regrading was needed to “address concerns about unfairness in relation to A-levels and GCSEs and ensure no Btec student is disadvantaged”.

Around 200,000 level one and two entries were due to receive grades last Thursday, while 250,000 level three grades have already been awarded but were part of the reassessment.

A Pearson spokesperson said: “We know this has caused frustration and additional uncertainty for students and we are truly sorry. No grades will go down as part of this review.”

Results will now be given on a rolling basis over the week, with the priority going to level three results which may be used for applying to university.

Pupils will receive results for level one and two qualifications, similar to entry-level and GCSE, from Thursday.

Cindy Rampersaud, senior vice-president for Btec and Apprenticeships at the company, said all eligible results will be available by Friday.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson “must put things right” for next year’s exams.

He said: “It is right that Pearson recognised the oncoming chaos and played their part in rectifying the situation, but students and their families will not forget this results season in a hurry.

“It was an entirely avoidable state of affairs, and the weaknesses of the system are now fully exposed.”

Mr Courtney called for changes for 2021’s exams including a reduction in the amount assessed as pupils have missed months of school and creating a national system of centre assessed grades in case of further outbreaks of Covid-19.

After an algorithm system saw tens of thousands of A-level students given lower marks than expected, pupils held multiple protests with many calling for Mr Williamson’s resignation.

The UK Government was later forced to make a U-turn and give students their teacher-predicted grades.