Exam board Pearson has been fined \u00a32 million by Ofqual for “serious” rule breaches which affected tens of thousands of students taking language qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fines are for breaches affecting three different qualifications <\/a>between 2019 and 2023, including its GCSE English language 2.0 and A-level Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson, which has now been fined seven times by exams regulator Ofqual, has accepted responsibility and apologised to pupils affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The exam board has agreed to a \u00a3750,000 fine for “fail[ing] to identify and effectively manage a risk of inconsistent grading standards” between its GCSE English language qualification and a new GCSE English language 2.0 qualification. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is despite Ofqual highlighting the risk in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2.0 language exam was introduced by Pearson in 2022. It was aimed at post-16 students who had not achieved grade 4 “standard pass”, including those taking re-sits. It had 23,165 student entries in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When standards were realigned with GCSE English language in summer 2024, students “received correct but unexpectedly lower results”, said Ofqual, which “undermined public confidence” and led to complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson has also received a \u00a3505,000 fine for “multiple issues” related to the Edexcel A-level in Chinese. This included spoken exams in Mandarin and Cantonese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ofqual reviewed assessments from 2019, 2022 and 2023, and found “multiple issues with how questions were set, and responses marked, that were inconsistent with requirements”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson failed to resolve these issues even after teachers and others raised concerns, said Ofqual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around 12,000 students were affected, particularly non-native Chinese speakers who were “disproportionately disadvantaged by the assessments being inappropriately demanding for them”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson has also been fined \u00a3750,000 for an English language test that enable international students to meet university entrance requirements. An online version, which has now been discontinued, reportedly made it possible for other people to sit the test on students’ behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson has issued an apology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We take responsibility for the issues that affected GCE A Level Chinese, GCSE English Language 2.0, and our legacy PTE Academic Online Test at different times between 2019 and 2023,” said a spokesperson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They accepted Pearson’s actions “did not meet regulatory requirements”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “For each of these cases, we addressed the issues, conducted a comprehensive review of our processes, and have implemented robust improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We apologise to all those affected. We have learned from these incidents and continue to invest in our systems, processes, and training to ensure our qualifications are delivered to the highest possible standard.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ofqual said its enforcement panel took mitigating factors into account when deciding on the penalties. This included Pearson accepting the breaches and entering into settlement agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amanda Swann, Ofqual\u2019s executive director for delivery, said the fines “reflect the serious nature of Pearson\u2019s failures as well as our commitment to protecting students\u2019 interests and maintaining public confidence in our qualifications system”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStudents must be able to trust that their results, and those of their peers taking the same qualifications, accurately reflect their performance, in line with appropriate standards. Students\u2019 work must also be their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis action is necessary to deter Pearson and other awarding organisations from similar failings in future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson has now been fined seven times by Ofqual. The highest penalty issued was in 2022, when Pearson was fined \u00a31.2 million <\/a>for failures with reviews of marking arrangements between 2016 and 2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exam board apologises after breaches affected tens of thousands of students taking language qualifications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314902,"featured_media":222700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[147],"post-theme":[],"class_list":["post-239426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ofqual"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t‘Multiple issues’ with Chinese A-level<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘We take responsibility’ – Pearson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n