The BBC Today host challenged Nick Gibb after the Government announced students awaiting for their BTEC results would have to wait as exam boards reviewed their decisions. The move is part of a significant U-turn from the Department for Education following widespread backlash over their handling of A-level results last week. Martha Kearney said: “It’s all so late, isn’t it?
“I mean, it’s chaotic what you’ve been hearing from one academy in southeast London.
“There the head is going to have to hand out certificates with BTECs on them because they are on the same piece of paper as GCSEs.”
The School Minister insisted the decision was to ensure students received the necessary result upgrades after the algorithm the Government designed to moderate pupils’ marks downgraded their assessments.
Mr Gibb said: “I know students will be downgraded, this is about upgrading not downgrading those GCSEs, those BTEC qualifications.
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Mr Gibb also echoed Education Secretary Gavin Williamson when he apologised to students across England for the “pain and anxiety” caused to them and their parents over the past week.
A-level students had to wait nearly four days before receiving confirmation their grades would be upgraded and based on their teachers’ assessments rather than the algorithm.
He said: “If I can say to the hundreds of thousands of young people that are collecting the GCSEs results and their recalculated A-levels, I’m sorry about the delays, the uncertainty, the pain and anxiety that young people will have faced following what happened last week with the A-level grades.
“And I can assure them that I and the independent regulator and the exam board and other colleagues at the DfE are working, night and day, to make sure that all young people are receiving a fair grade and they will receive it swiftly.”
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