An examination board is facing a fine of £ 350,000 after releasing hundreds of students with incorrect GCSE results.
More than 1,500 students in England were given wrong grades for their food and nutritional qualification in 2024, which was not introduced in Wales, but was run by Cardiff-based WJEC.
WJEC is Wales’s biggest abilityAnd also a major provider in both England and Northern Ireland.
The England exam Watchdog, the offwllers stated that the fine “reflected our commitment to protect the serious nature of WJEC’s failures and the interests of the students.
WJEC has “apologized to honestly” for the affected people, and said that it has issued a credit note of £ 219,000 to schools and colleges in the form of financial compensation.
Tocqual found that WJEC has failed to accommodate the course marking for teachers Edukas GCSE food preparation and nutrition courses – which created 50% qualification – were in line with national standards to ensure results.
This meant that 847 students received low grades while they should have, while 680 received high grades.
Students given in a lower class eventually saw their mark correct, while at high grade they kept their results to avoid wrongly punishing.
WJEC fines include £ 175,000 for errors in external moderation of teachers’ marking, and another £ 175,000 for violation of situations around the “marking review”.
Watchdog also found that between 2017 and 2023, WJEC allowed 3,926 examination papers to be reviewed by the same evaluator who originally marked the minimum part of them.
Amanda Swan, Executive Director of Office for General Qualification, said: “Students should be able to rely that their results are accurately reflecting their performance and what they know, can understand and do what they can do.
“These proposed fines reflect our commitment to protect the serious nature of WJEC’s failures and the interests of the students and to maintain the integrity of our merit system.”
In a statement, WJEC said: “We take full responsibility and admit that we do not meet us the expected high standards.
“We want to assure the learners and centers that we have reviewed our processes intensively and have applied appropriate measures to ensure such incidents again in the future.”
