GCSE students across England will be able to view their exams results on their phones for the first time in August.
An “education record” app, trialled with 95,000 pupils in Manchester and the West Midlands last summer, will initially download the results – and also allow Year 11 students to then store a digital record of those results for future use, such as when applying for jobs or further education.
However students will still be encouraged to go into school on results day to receive “advice or support”, headteachers say.
One incentive to do so is that while the traditional brown envelopes containing the much-anticipated grades will still be available to collect in person from 08:00 on results day, the new app will not get its update until 11:00.
The app will also hold information for schools and colleges on whether students have special educational needs and disabilities, or are eligible for free school meals.
The Department for Education estimates the rollout could save schools and colleges up to £30m a year in administrative costs because of the costs and time currently involved in sharing information that now every teenager will be able to show on request at subsequent stages in their education.
“No student should have to rifle through drawers looking for a crumpled certificate when they’re preparing for a job interview,” Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said.
“This app will give young people instant access to their results whenever they need them while freeing up teachers and college staff from unnecessary paperwork.”
Schools are being encouraged to sign up so pupils can download and set up the app before the summer results day.
Almost all of the students at Meadow Park School in Coventry, which took part in the pilot during the summer, still came into school on results day to pick up their brown envelopes according to headteacher Bernadette Pettman.
“The traditional brown envelope moment is still an important milestone for students, it’s a chance to see friends, celebrate together, and connect with staff,” Pettman told the BBC.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was important for young people to have an accessible record of their achievements but stressed that students should still collect exam results in person.
“This face-to-face contact not only allows them to celebrate with peers and teachers, but also to receive any advice or support they may require regarding next steps.”
“We are sure that school and college leaders will also welcome the administrative savings made possible as a result of this change, although this will only amount to a drop in the ocean compared to the funding pressures they remain under,” he added.
Students in Scotland, where there is a different set of exams for pupils at 16, have been able to get their results through an online app since 2019.
In Wales and Northern Ireland, where pupils sit GCSEs but the education system is politically devolved, no changes to the results prodecure have been announced.
Exams themselves do continue to evolve. Last month the exams watchdog in England, Ofqual, announced that around eight GCSE and A-level exams could switch from the traditional pen-and-paper method to on-screen assessments from 2030.
Teachers, exam boards and parents are being asked for their views on that proposal.
Ofqual’s chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham says any changes to exams would have to be fair, fully tested and top quality.
Additional reporting by Rahib Khan
