More BTec students could face delays to resultson August 24, 2022 at 11:23 am

Some BTec level 2 students will not get their results as expected on Thursday, an exam board has suggested.

Around 235,000 BTec Firsts, Technicals and Tech Award grades were scheduled to be sent to students tomorrow.

But exam board Pearson said that, as of Wednesday morning, 7,000 students were “ineligible to receive their grade”.

Pearson said it had “a dedicated team” working to obtain any outstanding information and would provide any results “as quickly as possible”.

Results for GCSEs, as well as other vocational and technical qualifications, are also due to be released on Thursday.

Pearson’s announcement does not affect results for GCSEs.

The affected BTec students could be deemed “ineligible” because some of their marks are not logged in the system, the BBC understands.

This may be due to processing issues, or, in some instances, because the pupil has decided not to continue with their BTec studies.

Pearson cannot currently confirm how many students who are expecting grades on Thursday will not receive them.

“As of 9am today, there are 7000 students that are currently ineligible to receive their grade as they do not meet the qualification criteria at this time,” the exam board said, in a statement on Wednesday.

“We have a dedicated team in place to work with schools and colleges to obtain and validate any outstanding information.”

It said it was focused on “running those eligibility checks and providing any results as quickly as possible to students”, and thanked schools and colleges for “tirelessly supporting us in this work”.

School leaders’ union NAHT said exam boards had “a responsibility to ensure that results are issued on time”, stressing that students’ “next steps may depend on their result”.

Last week, Pearson apologised after some BTec level 3 students did not receive their results on the day they were expected, throwing university places into doubt.

Pearson said a “very small percentage” of its BTec students were affected.

Another exam board, OCR, has also experienced delays issuing Cambridge Technicals results to some students.

Overall grades for GCSEs on Thursday are expected to be lower than 2020 and 2021, when grades based on teachers’ assessments led to a rise in top marks.

But – as with last week’s A-level results – they are projected to be higher than grades in 2019.

Are you expecting BTEC Level 2 results tomorrow, and are worried you may not receive your results? You can share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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