Author: Fraser Whieldon

The awarding body for BTECs has corrected education secretary Gavin Williamson after he said two per cent of results for the vocational qualification were moderated down.  Williamson, who is already under fire after U-turning on allowing GCSE, A-level and vocational students to use centre-assessed grades, told BBC Breakfast this morning: “Two per cent of results […]

A college leaders’ union has amped up the pressure on government, calling for an independent inquiry into this year’s exam results fiasco. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) general secretary Geoff Barton said there was an “urgent” need to “rapidly establish exactly what went wrong with the process for awarding grades to A-level […]

Leading labour market economists are being offered £1,000 a day by the Department for Education to join its new skills and productivity board.  Five vacancies for three-year terms are being advertised for, with an expectation members will commit for 29 days a year, including 12 board meetings.  The board, the advertisement reads, “will undertake expert […]

UPDATE: Pearson has now said only 0.5 per cent of BTEC results have been downgraded Two per cent of BTEC results were downgraded from the teacher-assessed grades, the education secretary said this morning.  Gavin Williamson told the BBC Breakfast programme the BTEC awarding body Pearson are going to be reviewing all of those grades, and […]

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has suggested he first got proper sight of Ofqual’s controversial algorithm – and the troublesome results awarded this year – when they were published publicly. When challenged over claims he only spotted concerns with the system this weekend, Williamson said the department “consistently” asked Ofqual a “large number of challenging questions” […]

Exams regulator Ofqual has confirmed that both A-level and GCSEs students will be given their teacher grades in what is a major U-turn for the government. The announcement, trailed by national newspaper journalists on Twitter earlier today, follows mounting pressure on the government over last week’s calculated grades that were mostly awarded based on Ofqual’s algorithm. […]

Ofqual has said it’s sorry for creating a results system that caused “real anguish” as it’s confirmed pupils will now be awarded teacher grades. As reported earlier, the government has confirmed that pupils will be awarded their centre assessment grades, as opposed to Ofqual’s calculated grades, in a major U-turn. However pupils whose calculated grades […]

Tens of thousands of students endured a nervous weekend wanting answers on how they can appeal against their calculated A-level results, after being downgraded. FE Week has spoken with a number of students who have had dreams of university and careers in medicine, law and physics thrown into jeopardy after exam board standardisation pulled down […]

Ministers are set to announce this afternoon that both A-level and GCSEs students will be given their teacher grades in a major U-turn following this year’s results fiasco. The expected announcement, reported by national newspaper journalists on Twitter, follows mounting pressure on the government over last week’s calculated grades that were mostly awarded based on Ofqual’s […]