An exam board is set to be fined £350,000 after more than 1,500 pupils received incorrect GCSE grades on results day last year.
The widespread error affected students taking WJEC’s Eduqas GCSE food preparation and nutrition qualification last summer.
Ofqual, England’s exams watchdog, found that WJEC had failed to adjust teachers’ marking of coursework – which made up 50 per cent of the qualification – to ensure results were in line with national standards.
In total, 847 students received lower grades and 680 received higher grades than they should have.
Those with incorrect lower grades were eventually issued their correct results in October last year.
WJEC decided students with incorrect higher grades should keep them to avoid unfairly penalising them.
The exams regulator is set to fine the exam board £175,000 for the error in the external moderation of teachers’ marking.
Ofqual will also fine WJEC another £175,000 after it found it had breached its conditions concerning how it conducted “reviews of marking”.
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.
One student had their grade increased last year after an independent review of marking was conducted.
WJEC also issued credit notes as financial compensation to schools and colleges, for all affected reviews, totalling just in excess of £219,000.
In the announcement – which comes just weeks before A-level and GCSE students receive their results – Ofqual said it will work closely with WJEC to ensure the mitigations they have put in place for this summer are effective.
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.”
A statement from WJEC said: “We would like to sincerely apologise to the learners affected by these incidents.
“We take full responsibility and acknowledge that we did not meet the usual high standards expected of us.
“Having co-operated fully with Ofqual throughout the process, 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.
“The measures we successfully introduced in 2024 have proven effective.
“In addition, as part of the corrective action taken to mitigate the issue, we can confirm that we have issued credit notes to all centres affected by the reviews of marking incident.”
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