Students are “paying the price” for a decade of cuts to funding and privatisation, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) has said. Following this year’s exam result chaos, colleges need to now receive the funding to allow them to support these learners, the union stresses.
The comments come as GCSE students receive results today - and BTEC students deal with the last-minute delay in them receiving their grades. UCU said the chaos had “harmed students”, and colleges now had a big role to play in making sure no student is left behind.
GCSE resit results: Grade 4s up in English and maths
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Students have worked hard
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Students have worked incredibly hard in difficult conditions this year. But due to government chaos BTEC students will have woken up this morning expecting to receive their results only to be told that a private company has pulled them. The government now needs to fix this mess so students can plan for the future. We need to stop turning education into marketplace, end the absurdity of private providers assessing results, and put students first.
“If we see a similar increase in BTEC pass rates as we have seen in GCSE’s then many more students will be able to go to college. The government now needs to commit to increasing funding and capacity so that no student is left behind and so colleges can safely welcome students in the middle of a pandemic.”
Ms Grady added colleges would need to “play a big role in our national recovery but a decade of funding cuts has led to a third of teachers leaving further education since 2009”. “The last thing this cohort of students needs is a substandard experience in colleges because the government fail to fund the sector. Students are paying the price for a decade of cuts and privatisation, we now need to fund further education properly as part of a national recovery plan.”
Todays’s GCSE results saw the highest pass rate and the highest proportion of top grades in England since the qualifications were reformed. Resit students also saw a significant increase in the proportion receiving at least a grade 4 in English and maths.
Meanwhile, Pearson announced yesterday that due to concerns over the “comparatively higher outcomes” of A-level and GCSE students following the government’s U-turn on grading, it would BTEC results. The exam board asked colleges and schools not to issue level 1 and 2 results today.
NUS vice president for further education Salsabil Elmegri said: “Congratulations to all students receiving their GCSE results today. This year has been incredibly challenging for everyone, and we must recognise the remarkable efforts from all students to overcome all adversity. While it will be a relief to most students getting their centre assessed grades today, it is an absolute disgrace that BTEC students will still have to wait to receive the grades they deserve.
“The entire exams fiasco over the past couple of weeks has exposed the injustices baked in to our education system, to which the government has long been complicit. Years of underfunding our schools, colleges and universities has meant that education works by means of a postcode lottery. Now they must act to overhaul our current system of exams and grading, and launch a full review to design a new process that does not disadvantage any student.”
