UK Exams Watchdog Hits Pearson with £2 Million Fine Over Regulatory Failures
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The UK’s exam regulator, Ofqual, has issued a series of heavy financial penalties to the education giant Pearson, totalling over £2 million. The fines follow three separate cases of regulatory breaches between 2019 and 2023 that collectively impacted the academic lives of tens of thousands of students.
At the heart of the controversy is a £750,000 fine relating to Pearson’s GCSE English Language 2.0 qualification. Ofqual found that Pearson failed to manage the risk of inconsistent grading standards between this new version and the traditional GCSE. Despite the regulator raising red flags in 2022 and 2023, the issues weren’t fully addressed until 2024, leading to thousands of students receiving unexpectedly lower results.
A further £750,000 penalty was imposed for security lapses in the PTE Academic Online English test. During the pandemic, Pearson allowed a small percentage of students to take the test from home. However, “serious malpractice” occurred in 2023, where individuals were found to be sitting exams on behalf of candidates. While Pearson eventually revoked nearly 10,000 results, the regulator criticised the firm for not catching the fraud sooner or reporting it promptly.
Lastly, the board was fined £505,000 over its A Level Chinese assessments. Investigations revealed that questions were set and marked in a way that disproportionately disadvantaged non-native speakers, making the exams “inappropriately demanding.”
This landmark enforcement serves as a stark reminder that the integrity of the British examination system is non-negotiable. While Pearson has issued a full apology and implemented “robust improvements,” the sheer scale of these fines; seven in total for the company now, underlines a growing impatience from the regulator. For the students affected, many of whom were already navigating the pressures of post-pandemic education, the hope is that these penalties will finally ensure that their hard work is met with a fair and secure assessment process moving forward.
Source: THE PIE NEWS
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