Social media users have shared a fictitious tweet from British education minister Gavin Williamson, in which he congratulates Eton students for achieving their “best ever” A-Level results.
Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
Posts showing the false tweet can be seen ( here ) ( here ) ( here ).
The posts follow widespread criticism of an algorithm that downgraded the results awarded to students in England after their actual tests were cancelled due to COVID-19 ( here ).
There was concern that algorithm favoured students in the smaller classes more commonly found at fee-paying private schools, like Eton College.
Following public pressure, students will now be awarded the grade that their teachers had predicted for them based on past performance, rather than one produced by the algorithm.
The social media posts contain an image of a tweet purportedly sent from Williamson’s official Twitter account on August 13, 2020. The tweet has text that reads: “Congratulations to Eton who have achieved their best ever A-Level performance”.
The false tweet does not appear on Williamson’s timeline. On August 13, Williamson did send a tweet congratulating students who received their grades that day ( here ). However, he did not send a tweet that singled out Eton students.
According to Politwoops, a project by ProPublica that archives deleted tweets from politicians, the tweet has also not been deleted from his page ( here ).
VERDICT
False. Gavin Williamson did not send tweet congratulating Eton students on their “best ever” A-Level results.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts www.reuters.com/fact-check/about .