GCSE results: Year 11 students celebrate record grades after algorithm U-turn... but farce continues for BTec students

  • Top grades for one in four GCSE results
  • Remarked A-level pass rates soar
  • But 500,000 still in dark over BTecs

GCSE and A-level pupils were celebrating record grades today — but half a million BTec students were still awaiting results and thousands of young people remained in the dark over places at sixth forms and universities.

A record one in four GCSEs and almost four in 10 A-levels got top grades today based on teacher assessments.

More than 600,000 teenagers picked up their GCSE results this morning for the exams that were cancelled due to coronavirus. New grades for the botched A-levels were also issued. Results were initially calculated using a controversial algorithm that was scrapped following an outcry in favour of using grades submitted by teachers, which are significantly higher, for both sets of exams.

But 500,000 pupils’ BTec results that were meant to have been published alongside GCSE results were pulled last night so they can be re-graded in line with GCSEs and A-levels.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said he was hopeful they would arrive next week . Today’s record results will increase the pressure on universities and sixth form colleges who have to cope with record numbers of teenagers qualifying for their first choice courses.

A political blame game continued as Mr Gibb insisted that ministers had approved a “fair” model for exam regrading, but “something went wrong in the application of that model in practice” when exam regulator Ofqual devised an algorithm to implement the model.

The UK Statistics Authority is to review all the algorithms used in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Labour turned the heat on Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. Shadow education secretary Kate Green said he was “warned again and again about the problems with the grading algorithm”.

GCSE Results (2020) - In pictures

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GCSE subjects are now given numerical grades from 9 to 1 instead of the old A* to G scale.

Figures released by exams regulator Ofqual today revealed:

  • 25.9 per cent of GCSE entries were graded 7 and above, compared with 20.7 per cent last year. This is an increase of 25 per cent. (Grade 7 is the equivalent of the old A and A* grades.)
  • 76 per cent of GCSE entries were graded 4 and above, compared with 67.1 per cent in 2019 (the equivalent of a C and above).
  • The GCSE pass rate is now 99.6 per cent. In 2019 it was 98.3 per cent.
  • The most popular GCSE subject was double award science, taken by 814,708 students. Maths and English were the next most popular subjects, with more than 700,000 students taking them.
  • The percentage of exams graded level 9 — the top mark — has increased by 40 per cent, from 4.5 per cent last year to 6.3 per cent this year.
More students at the school in north west London
Lucy Young

At the same time, the recalculated A-level results were released, following Monday’s U-turn when the algorithm was scrapped.

The new grades are based on teacher assessments and the figures show:

  • The A/A* A-Level pass rate in England is now 38.1 per cent, a 51 per cent  increase on 2019. And up from last week’s figure of 27.7 per cent, which was calculated using the algorithm.
  • The overall A-level pass rate is now 99.7 per cent, compared with 97.5 per cent in 2019. That means just 0.3 per cent of entries this year were classed as failed, down from 2.5 per cent last year.
  • Figures from UCAS show 160,000 A-level students were upgraded and 15,000 of these who were rejected from their first choice university now qualify for a place there.

Mr Williamson said young people should feel “incredibly proud” of what they have achieved “in the face of immense challenge and uncertainty”.

But some 500,000 youngsters who took BTecs were told they would not get their results after exam board Pearson announced last night it will re-grade them. For many, this will mean higher grades to bring them more into line with A-level students.

Mr Gibb admitted that BTecs were held back because colleges had protested strongly that youngsters would be at a disadvantage compared to their A-level counterparts.

Asked when BTec students will finally receive their grades, he told the BBC: “Well, as soon as possible, but I hope next week.”

Mr Gibb confirmed that he and Mr Williamson were contacted six weeks ago by Sir Jon Coles, a former director-general at the Department for Education, who wrote to the Education Secretary to express concerns about the algorithm used by Ofqual .

But he strongly denied Labour’s claim that nothing was done. “[Sir John] spoke to me about it and he was concerned about the model and he was concerned that it would disadvantage particularly children from poorer backgrounds,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “And so I called a meeting therefore with the independent regulator, with Ofqual, to discuss in detail those very concerns.”

He suggested that the failings lay in the algorithm, saying that the way it was supposed to have worked was “fair”. “It’s that element of the application of the model that I think there is a concern.” He added: “The algorithm itself, that’s a matter for Ofqual, they developed that algorithm.”

Schools minister Nick Gibb
BBC Breakfast

Ms Green said: “It is time for full transparency. The Department for Education must now publish all correspondence to and from the Secretary of State in which concerns about this algorithm were discussed, as a matter of urgency. Young people deserve to know how they came to be let down so badly.”

In the absence of exams, cancelled due to the pandemic, grades had been due to be awarded according to teacher assessments moderated by an algorithm which took into account the previous performance of the student’s school.

The Government was forced into a U-turn after an outcry over A-level results when some pupils were downgraded by up to three grades by the algorithm.

Pupils receiving GCSE results and re-graded A-levels today were awarded the mark given by their teacher unless the moderated grade was higher.

A-level students react after Government U-turn

The inflated grades are putting pressure on sixth form colleges and universities which are struggling to find ways to admit the number of pupils that have consequently qualified for a place. There are also fears that some students with higher than expected results may enrol on courses that prove too difficult for them, and drop out.

Headteachers called for schools to move on from the heartache of the past weeks and focus on the start of term next month.

Graeme Smith, principal of Harris Academy St John’s Wood, said he is “ready for the start of term and raring to go.”

Emma Pattison, head of Croydon High School, said: “Once today is over, our attention will turn firmly to September re-opening for all pupils.”