Btecs ‘would have missed grade inflation’

‘It’s vital this gets sorted as soon as possible to enable young people’s aspirations to be realised’

RESULTS for Btecs were delayed because pupils would otherwise have missed out on the same grade inflation that GCSE and A-level students enjoyed through the scrapping of the algorithm, a minister has said.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, explained the last-minute decision to pull Btec results from those released yesterday. He told Sky News: “Because of the decision to change from a calculated grade to teacher assessment and the grade inflation that caused, the feedback was there needed to be similar uplift for Btecs.”

He said Pearson, the exam board that administers the qualification, was now “reviewing all grades and reissuing them, hopefully next week”.

Hundreds of thousands of Btec students are still waiting for their final grades after the exam board told schools and colleges not to release the results to pupils yesterday.

Btec grades were not included in the original about-turn, but on Wednesday – with just hours to go until results day – Pearson said it would regrade Btecs to “address concerns about unfairness”. Schools had to scramble at the last minute to remove Btec results from the documentation they were due to give students, causing delays in the issuing of GCSE results.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, called the move “upsetting and chaotic”. She said: “The Government must put an end to this incompetence and work quickly to ensure every young person gets the grades they deserve to move on to the next stages of their lives.”

Vanessa Wilson, University Alliance chief executive, said: “It’s vital this gets sorted as soon as possible to enable young people’s aspirations to be realised and allow universities to confirm decisions on places where relevant.”

Mairi Watson, pro-vice-chancellor for education and student experience at the University of Hertfordshire, said her university had offered Btec students places based on either their awarded results or predicted grades, whichever was higher.

She said: “We are disappointed that these students are facing a delay... Btec students study a wide range of courses that are critical to our future highly skilled workforce, from engineering to healthcare... We need to give them the certainty about their futures that they deserve.”

Around 200,000 Level 1 and 2 entries were due to receive grades yesterday, with 250,000 Level 3 grades awarded last week.