Qualifications Wales confirms appeals process for GCSEs, AS levels or A levels exams

Qualifications Wales has confirmed more details about the appeals process, as first outlined by the Minister for Education on 20 January 2021.

Provisional results will be handed out in June with final grades given out in August.

Education Minister Kirsty Williams has confirmed there will be no end of year exams for learners taking GCSEs, AS levels or A levels in Wales.

The announcement was made “after considering detailed advice published by Qualifications Wales on the delivery options available as well as the interim findings of an independent review into this year’s exams process.”

The exam regulator has now outlined how the three-stage process will work.

It begins with schools and colleges sharing provisional grades with learners in June.

A learner can ask their school or college to review provisional grades and/or check for any errors before they are submitted to WJEC.

Stage 2 – After results day in August, a learner can appeal to WJEC that the grade judgement that their school or college has made is unreasonable and/or a procedural error has been made.

Stage 3 -Following completion of the Stage 2 appeal, learners can request an Exam Procedures Review Service (EPRS) review from Qualifications Wales to check whether WJEC has followed their procedures correctly.

Final qualification grades will not be issued to learners until the results days, which are 10 August for AS and A levels and 12 August for GCSEs.

Philip Blaker, Chief Executive of Qualifications Wales said: “We’ve been engaging with the Design and Delivery Advisory Group and WJEC to consider how we can implement an effective appeals process. ”

“We are also mindful of the recommendations of the independent review into summer 2020 and that we should ensure that the appeals process is fair and workable”

“As with all the decisions being taken for this summer, there are no easy answers.  We are committed to putting the needs of the learner at the heart of our work.”

Gareth Evans Director of Education Policy at the University of Wales said the move announced by Qualifications Wales “is a very late decision and another change to the planned approach to GCSE and A levels.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Mr Evans said, “I think there are going to be a number of very frustrated and disappointed teachers.”

“The announcement has come so very late in the day, we are in March, just a number of months now before grades were due to be awarded by teachers and they haven’t been given due notice.”

“What they’re going to have to do is make decisions on the awards of their pupils far earlier with perhaps less information and evidence available to them as they planned.”

“They are going to have to move everything forward by a couple of months, which isn’t ideal given the return agenda, given that they’re trying to get their schools back open to face to face teaching and I think, I think this has all been done fairly late in the day.”