An exam board is facing a £350,000 fine after issuing hundreds of pupils with the wrong GCSE results.
More than 1,500 pupils in England were given incorrect grades for their food and nutrition qualification in 2024, a course not offered in Wales, but run by the Cardiff-based WJEC.
The WJEC is Wales’ largest qualifications awarding body, and also a leading provider in both England and Northern Ireland.
Ofqual, England’s exam watchdog, said the fine reflected “the serious nature of WJEC’s failures and our commitment to protecting the interests of students”.
The WJEC has “sincerely apologised” to those affected, and said it had issued credit notes worth £219,000 to affected schools and colleges as financial compensation.
Ofqual found the WJEC had failed to adjust teachers’ marking of coursework for the Eduqas GCSE food preparation and nutrition course – which made up 50% of the qualification – to ensure results were in line with national standards.
This meant that 847 students received lower grades than they should have, while 680 received higher grades.
Students given a lower grade eventually saw their marks corrected, while those on higher grades kept their results to avoid unfairly penalising them.
WJEC’s fine consists of £175,000 for errors in external moderation of teachers’ marking, and another £175,000 for breaching conditions around “reviews of marking”.
The watchdog also found that between 2017 and 2023, WJEC allowed 3,926 exam papers to be reviewed by the same assessors who had originally marked at least part of them.
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.”
In a statement, WJEC said: “We take full responsibility and acknowledge that we did not meet the usual high standards expected of us.
“We want to reassure learners and centres that we have undertaken a thorough review of our processes and implemented appropriate measures to ensure such incidents do not occur again in the future.”
