Thousands of Btec students will receive results by end of next week amid delays
All Btec students will receive their results by the end of next week amid delays, the awarding organisation has said.
Pearson has apologised for the “frustration and additional uncertainty” caused to pupils following its decision to pull the results at the last minute.
Students awaiting grades for university entry are being prioritised and will receive their results from Tuesday onwards, the exam board said, and all the remaining results will be available by Friday next week.
The clarification on timings from the exam boards comes after students and teachers protested in Westminster over the Btec and A-level results chaos.
On Wednesday, just hours before results day, hundreds of thousands of Btec students were told that they would not receive their results following a U-turn.
We have received an update on BTECs. Level 3 (Post-16) results will start being released to schools from next Tuesday (25th August) and all results released by next Friday (28th August). Needless to say, this is far later than scheduled for all BTEC results. pic.twitter.com/5GbvVVjm7D
— Beaulieu School (@BeaulieuSchool) August 21, 2020
Pearson said it needed to review the grades of its level one to three Btec qualifications after Ofqual’s decision to allow A-level and GCSE students to use grades based on their teachers’ estimates.
Around 200,000 level one and two entries were due to receive grades on Thursday this week, while 250,000 level three grades were already awarded last week.
A spokeswoman for Pearson 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.
“We believe this will result in the fairest outcomes for the 2020 cohort of Btec learners, and ensure they are not disadvantaged in relation to their peers who have taken A-level and GCSE qualifications.
“We have now written to colleges to confirm that all eligible results will be available by August 28.
“Thank you to all the schools and colleges who have been working so collaboratively with us to support their students at this time.”
Dozens of people attended a protest over exam results outside Downing Street on Friday where they demanded the immediate sacking of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
On Friday morning, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps became the latest minister to defend Mr Williamson over the exam results chaos.
He said: “I haven’t given him any advice other than to say, if you’re in politics long enough then you’ll always have to go through difficult weeks.”
Mr Shapps added: “Let’s not pretend that the choices facing the Education Secretary were unique to England or straightforward, because they were not.”
