GCSE grades rise, but sharp fall in English

THERE has been a sharp fall in English GCSE grades, but on average across all GCSE subjects this year's results show a slight rise in A* to C grades.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been receiving their GCSE results.

Exam officials revealed that 68.8% of entries scored A*-C, up 0.7 percentage points on last summer.

There have been warnings of "volatility" in results following an overhaul of the exam system.

Brian Lightman, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that below the headline figures there were individuals who would be "victims of the changes".

"There are students who have got shock results," he said.

Andrew Hall, head of the AQA exam board, said the most significant impact on this year's results has been the big fall in younger pupils taking exams a year early. Changes in the league tables discouraged schools from such multiple entries.

With fewer young exam candidates, there was a sharp improvement in maths results where the percentage achieving A* to C grades rose by 4.8 percentage points to 62.4%.

This is the first year of results following the switch to a greater emphasis on exams at the end of two years, rather than coursework and modular units.

The results in English seem to have been most affected, with the number of A*-C grades down 1.9 percentage points to 61.7%. This could also have been influenced by the removal of some teacher assessment in this subject.

There is still a significant gender gap in this year's results, with 73.1% of girls' exam entries achieving A* to C compared with 64.3% for boys.

Exam officials also highlighted a fall in the numbers of entries for biology, chemistry and physics, the first such decline for a decade.

Michael Turner, director general of the Joint Council for Qualifications, said although the overall results were "relatively stable", individual schools and colleges could see "volatility in their results".

Glenys Stacey, chief executive of the Ofqual exam regulator, has also warned that changes in the exam system could hit individual schools in different ways.

School Reform Minister Nick Gibb said changes were necessary to raise standards and to give students an "in-depth understanding".

"It will take many years to ensure that we have an education system which is on a par with the best in the world so our young people can compete in what is a very competitive global jobs market," said Mr Gibb.

Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment at Buckingham University, warned of "shocks in store" for some schools, depending on "how much they relied on gaming the old system".

Another major change this year is the widening gap between the type of GCSEs taken by pupils in England and those in Northern Ireland and Wales.

The reforms to GCSE, such as the switch to linear, non-modular courses, have applied only to England. Although the overall GCSE figures include England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the exams are increasingly dissimilar.

The results this year rose more quickly in Wales than the overall average.

"All of this piecemeal change to GCSE means that is incredibly difficult for schools to forecast what grades students might expect to achieve, or indeed to compare the school's results with previous years," said head teachers' leader Brian Lightman.

"Consequently the statistical trends are becoming less and less meaningful.

"Young people are not statistics. They are individuals whose life chances depend on these results. They have worked extremely hard for these exams and been conscientiously supported by their teachers. I hope that their results do them justice."

Chris Keates, leader of the NASUWT teachers' union, says the results are a "reflection of the hard work put in by pupils and teachers who have been forced to cope with a totally unnecessary upheaval in the GCSE qualification system".

There were calls for more stability in the exam system from Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary of the ATL teachers' union.

"Continual piecemeal and untested tinkering with exams is not in the interests of young people or the economy and needs to end." she said.

Tweet