Exam board Pearson Edexcel has apologised for the “unintentional error” after a map of the continent of Africa was labelled incorrectly in an exam.
The Pearson Edexcel GCSE Geography B paper 3, which was sat by students this week, labelled Gabon as the Republic of Congo in the resource pack.
Following the error, the board has said it will “ensure” that students are not ”impacted by awarding marks for references to either country”.
The board also said it apologised for “any confusion caused”.
David Cunningham, head of geography at a school in the South East of England, told Tes the mistake was “truly abominable”.
GCSEs 2022: Geography exam paper mistake ‘totally unacceptable’
He said that his school set “high standards” for its students regarding the “importance of accurate mapping” and that “understanding place and the importance of map skills is at the heart of any geography curriculum”.
Mr Cunningham added that it was “totally unacceptable to have an exam board that can’t get the basic fundamentals of geography correct”, and that it raised “serious questions about the processes involved in creating exam questions”.
He said staff and students had been left feeling “very let down” and that the error had put “serious doubt in our minds about the competence of those in charge of generating the exams our students sit”.
He also highlighted that the top three producers of oil in Africa in 2020 listed in the paper should have included Algeria rather than the DRC.
Pearson’s geography subject adviser, Jon Wolton, replied to Mr Cunningham’s concerns on Twitter, thanking him for his feedback and apologising for the error.
