GCSE RESULTS: Pupils achieve record high scores in England | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

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Record numbers for highest GCSE scores were awarded to pupils in England, but the rise remained well below the acceleration seen in top A-level scores earlier this week.

Thirty percent of female participants scored grades 7 and above – equivalent to A and A* – compared to 27.5% in 2020 and 22% in 2019, and the official exams were taken last year before the Covid pandemic.

Government grammar schools in England have been by far the most successful, with over 68% of entries awarded grade 7 and above, an increase of nearly three percentage points compared to last year. In contrast, 20% in modern high schools have the highest grades.

Charter schools, where 70% of A-level entries scored an A or above, gave the highest scores for 61% of GCSE entries, up four percentage points from 2020 and up 14 points since 2019.

Grammar schools typically outperform those in the independent sector, in part because many private schools choose to take so-called International Qualifications or IGCSEs, or similar qualifications, rather than exams regulated by government bodies.

Nationally, the proportion of pupils in England with a 4 or above, C-equivalent or higher, has not changed from 78.8% last year to 79.1%, although it is still the highest pass rate since the reform of GCSE courses.

There was also a “slight widening” in the achievement gap between pupils who received free school meals and those who were not, according to an analysis of Ofqual, the exam organizer. The students who got free school meals scored 0.1 score lower compared to 2019. The score for Roma or Roma students also decreased in 2019 by 0.2 score.

Although the 2.5 percentage point increase in top scores was less than the six percentage point jump in A-levels, this still meant the record 3,600 students scored 9 in every subject they entered. This included 338 students who achieved the highest score in 11 subjects or more – in 2019 only 133 students managed to achieve this feat.

Government academies, including 2,000 secondary schools in England, gave grades 7 and above to 28% of entries, while comprehensive schools gave the highest scores to 26%, both rising by more than two percentage points over the course of the year.

Girls have outperformed boys in mathematics in England for the first time since the GCSE reform by Michael Gove as Minister of Education, with 26.4% of girls scoring 7 or higher compared to 25.5% of boys. In 2019, 20.9% of boys’ math inputs scored 7 or more, 1 percentage point higher than girls’.

In English, the gender gap in outcomes was much wider with almost a third of participants scoring 7 or more, compared to less than a fifth of boys. The difference between them was 13.6 percentage points, the largest gap since 2016.

The analysis published by Ofqual said it found no discrepancies in award patterns by different types of schools. Thus, changes may reflect the disproportionate impact of the epidemic that will be diminished by assessment arrangements. It is also worth noting that more capable students may be better able to study independently.

This year’s grade delivery in England went smoothly, in marked contrast to the confusion seen in 2020 when teacher-assessed grades were awarded at the last minute rather than grades derived from an algorithm that sparked a public outcry.

This year’s exams in England were canceled in January by the education minister, Gavin Williamson, who chose to award teachers grades by assessment, under the supervision of exam boards.

Jeff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said this year’s GCSE scores were a “fair and accurate reflection” of pupils’ ability to receive them, despite the controversy over grade inflation.

“These students deserve great credit for having weathered the storm of the last eighteen months,” Barton said.

“The question of next year’s grades is just one part of a broader issue of how to support pupils in the wake of the pandemic. This should also include an education recovery plan from the government that is more ambitious and better funded than what ministers have done so far.”

The Minister for Schools, Nick Gibb, has confirmed that exams will return to high school pupils in England next summer. There will be adjustments to make it fairer, to compensate for the learning disruption pupils are facing this year, and more details about the scoring standard for these tests will be announced in the fall, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

But he said that in the long term the government wanted to return to the situation that prevailed before the pandemic, where inflating scores was not an issue and “where you don’t see a significant disparity between the scores awarded year after year.”

Jeb also ruled out keeping teacher evaluation as a substitute for exams. He said: Exams are the fairest system for evaluating young people. We had to cancel the exams this year because it wouldn’t be fair… But we will go back to the exams in 2022 because it is simply the best way to judge a young man’s achievement.”

While all students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland take GCSEs, the transition of education to each country’s governments has resulted in course content, grades, and assessment methods to vary widely, making any UK-wide comparisons difficult.

In Wales, there was a slight decrease in the proportion of students with a C or above, to 73.6%, but the rate of entries with the highest A* and A grades increased from 25.5% to 28.7%.

Jeremy Miles, Welsh Minister of Education, told the students: “You have thrown everything at you for the past 18 months – periods of lockdown, time away from your friends and family, times when you have missed out on so many social activities that you should be enjoying. You have shown tremendous resilience to overcome over all of these challenges.

In Northern Ireland, the proportion of entries awarded as an As to a fraction increased below 40%, while 89.6% of entries with a C or above were slightly lower than in 2020.

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