Ofqual will fine WJEC £350,000 after over 1,500 GCSE students received incorrect results due to moderation and marking review failures in a 2022 exam series
Ofqual has announced a financial penalty on exam board WJEC, underscoring the importance of maintaining exam standards and quality assurance. This move, amid concerns over the accuracy of GCSE results, raises crucial questions about the processes behind exam marking and student outcomes.
Breaching exam rules in two separate cases
Ofqual is set to fine awarding organisation WJEC £350,000 in total for breaching exam rules in two separate cases, including one that led to 1,527 students receiving the wrong GCSE grades on results day, significantly impacting their academic journey.
The 1,527 students who received the incorrect results had taken WJEC’s Eduqas GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition qualification in summer 2024.
WJEC had failed to adjust teachers’ marking of coursework, which made up to 50% of the qualification, to ensure results were in line with national standards.
Following this initial investigation, Ofqual found that, whilst 17,610 results did not need to be changed, 847 students received lower grades and 680 got higher grades than they should have. The students who received lower grades were eventually issued the correct grades in October 2024. This error could have had a significant impact on these students’ future academic and career prospects. WJEC decides that those who received incorrect higher grades should keep them, to avoid unfairly penalising students who may have already utilised the results.
Ofqual will fine WJEC £175,000 for this case, caused by an error in WJEC’s external moderation of teachers’ marking.
Breaching its Conditions of Recognition
In a second case, Ofqual found that between 2017 and 2023, WJEC had allowed 3,926 exam papers, out of 120,094 reviews of marking across 38 Ofqual-regulated qualifications, to be reviewed by the same assessors who had originally marked at least part of them. This practice, which is against regulations, could potentially lead to biased or inaccurate reviews.
WJEC will be fined an additional £175,000 for breaching its Conditions of Recognition regarding its ‘reviews of marking’.
One student had their grade increased in 2024 after a fully independent review of marking was conducted. In response to the incident, WJEC issued credit notes as financial compensation to schools and colleges for all affected reviews, totalling just over £219,000.
Amanda Swann, Ofqual’s Executive Director for General Qualifications, said: “Students must be able to trust that their results accurately reflect their performance, and what they know, understand and can do.
These proposed fines reflect the serious nature of WJEC’s failures and our commitment to protecting the interests of students and maintaining the integrity of our qualifications system. This includes the requirement that GCSE, AS and A-level students are entitled to an independent review of their exam marks.”
Ofqual’s enforcement panel agreed that a fine was appropriate and addressed several mitigating factors. These included that WJEC had admitted the breaches, entirely accepted responsibility, taken steps to prevent the problems from happening again, such as implementing stricter moderation procedures and increasing the number of independent reviews, and engaged fully with Ofqual.
