GCSE Pass Rate For English and Maths Lowest in Decade
The GCSE pass rate for English and maths has hit its lowest level in a decade. The Telegraph has more.
Just 58.3% of all pupils across the UK passed their maths GCSE this year, down from 59.5% last year to reach the lowest level since 2013.
Meanwhile, the pass rate for English dropped 1.7 percentage points to hit 60.2% this summer, matching a previous low for the subject in 2016 and marking the worst result since 2004.
It comes after Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, warned that failure to ensure children leave school with solid English and maths skills was holding Britain back.
She told the Telegraph on Wednesday that the pass rate for the two GCSE subjects was particularly low among white working-class children and claimed that this was having a knock-on effect on UK productivity.
Today’s results means two in five pupils are now failing the two compulsory GCSE subjects, despite most jobs requiring applicants to prove that they passed them.
Falls in both subjects were driven by a surge in the number of children retaking them and failing aged 17 or over, since pupils that fail are required to resit them if they stay on for sixth form.
The proportion of top GCSEs grades remained broadly stable this summer compared to 2024, although still above pre-pandemic levels.
The attainment gap between boys and girls also fell to its lowest on record, with boys improving slightly compared to last year to receive 19.4% of top grades and girls falling marginally to take 24.5%.
Overall, 21.9% of GCSE entries across the UK were awarded a grade 7 or above this year – equivalent to an A in the former grading system.
This was up by 0.1 percentage points compared to 2024 – meaning an increase of just 2,000 entries awarded top grades this year – but higher than the 2019 rate of 20.8%.
Last week’s bumper A-level results prompted accusations that grade inflation may have become baked into the system following the pandemic. Ofqual, the exams regulator, insisted that record top A-level grades this year were because of a “smarter, smaller” cohort.
Alphabetic grades for GCSEs were replaced with a numerical scale in 2017 as a way of clamping down on creeping grade inflation and distinguishing the very brightest pupils.
The new grading system ranges from the lowest grade 1 to the highest level of grade 9, with grade 7 counting as an A, grade 8 a low A* and grade 9 equivalent to a high A*.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: As usual, the Michaela Community School got outstanding GCSE results, with 80% of its students being graded 7-9 (A/A* in old money) and 100% getting grade 4 or above (C or above) in Maths and English. The West London Free School also did well, with 63% of students getting 7-9 and 90% grade 4 or above in Maths and English. The Mail has run a tribute to Katharine Birbalsingh and Michaela here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
They can set the grade boundaries to anything they like, so the get their desired pass rate. Why do they want a lower pass rate?
No white boys (or boys of any kind) in the photo. Very few white people of any kind actually.
They would have had to use some form of AI technology to achieve that.
Which is why they got 3rd world results, perhaps.
You don’t need maths or English to rape white schoolgirls I guess.
The idea that low English and maths scores are holding the country back is stupid- there’s no jobs for the poor beggars anyway, unless they want to go and live in China.
The real problem is they come out of school thoroughly indoctrinated with Marxist woke dielectic and unable to reason independently and unable to appreciate the majestic beauty and superiority of Anglophone civilization.
That is the real problem.
#raise the colours.
Many young people start out in the hospitality sector which Rachel from Accounts is forcing to decline at the fastest rate ever. Soon to come will be a drastic reduction in retail as the major supermarkets are going to be hit by business rates. And to no great surprise one of our last 3 steelworks has gone into administration. I wonder if they were still working with equipment from the 1950s?
Toby, M8, what a goddawful centrist twat photo to use for this article – 13 ‘pupils’ and only three are white.
“She told the Telegraph on Wednesday that the pass rate for the two GCSE subjects was particularly low among white working-class children and claimed that this was having a knock-on effect on UK productivity.”
I wonder why that could be?
I am truly sorry for the children who haven’t achieved the level of genius that we seem to get year in, year out as pass rates were going higher and higher, but I could never be convinced that pupils were continuously more intelligent than the previous year. The constant grade inflation does nothing for those with their fake grades and insults the pupils the year before who did marginally worse. I also wonder how these geniuses would have performed with the pre-1980s GCE O and A levels.
Nothing to do with the months away from school 20/21 during the Government imposed and completely unnecessary lockdowns of course…..
Does the UK have any white males? I didn’t see any in the photo.
Who needs maffs and inglish to be a community outreach officer, or alphabet people activist, or work in a charity, or work in the civil service, or work in mejia, or not work at all which is what many school leavers do these days?