All Btec results to be released by next Friday, exam board Pearson says

21 August 2020, 16:34

Schools have been told that that all BTec results will be released to them by next Friday, following a decision by exam board Pearson to pull the results the night before they were due to be released.

In an update, schools were told that level 3 (Post-16) results will start being released to schools from next Tuesday.

All results will be released by next Friday, Pearson said.

BTec students were due to collect results on Thursday along with GCSEs.

Pearson said all BTecs would be regraded to bring them in line with A-levels and GCSEs following a government u-turn to use teachers grades to mark these instead of their controversial algorithm.

The move affected 575,000 pupils, 250,000 of whom had already received grades last week.

A spokeswoman for Pearson said: "We have now written to colleges to confirm that all eligible results will be available by August 28."

The statement added: "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."

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BTEC students' grades were not included in the original government u-turn announcement, but now Pearson has said it will be regrading BTECs awarded last week - as well the grades that were due to be released tomorrow.

It comes after education unions and the Labour Party called on the Government to provide clarity on why BTec students had been left out of Monday's grading U-turn.

A Ucas spokesman said: "The vast majority of students applying this year with Btecs have secured their place at University, with 45,000 students already placed with their first choice university.

"Approximately 5,800 students were not placed at their original firm choice university and we expect some of those students will, when revised grades are issued, meet the conditions of their original firm offer.

"Ucas will work closely with Pearson to process these results to ensure they can make decisions as soon as possible."

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."