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The 16-year-olds who received their GCSE results on Thursday were in their first year of secondary school when Covid struck. The ensuing chaos and disruption cast a long, destabilising shadow over their education, which was further undermined by the inadequate response of successive Conservative administrations. In such circumstances, those celebrating this week deserve immense praise for achieving grades that can open the door to exciting opportunities and futures.
For the new Labour government, however, which has made it a priority to reduce levels of educational inequality, the overall results point to significant challenges. As expected, they more or less confirm a return across Britain to pre-Covid norms. Like last year, grades in England were only marginally above pre-pandemic levels, following the inevitable inflation when they were awarded through teacher assessment.
This return to normality is, of course, good news. Young people have a right to expect that the fruits of their hard work are fully recognised and validated. But the legacy of the Covid period is still very visible in relation to mental health and attendance issues. High levels of absenteeism and stress continue to blight the education of some young people, particularly those coming from more challenging backgrounds. Better forms of support need to be devoted to a problem that is not going away.
More broadly, reform is needed in an education system in which the disadvantage gap is both entrenched and growing. As with last week’s A-level results, the gulf in top grades between private and state schools grew even larger. Once again, stubborn regional disparities were evident – notably between high-achieving London and the south-east, and the rest of England. Demoralisingly, barely one in five of those taking obligatory resits of maths and English GCSEs – a condition of funding for their post-16 education – achieved the necessary pass grade.
The socioeconomic dimension to these unequal outcomes is stark. Young people from less well-off families, in poorer areas, fare comparatively worse and see their future options restricted accordingly. As the schools minister, Catherine McKinnell, observed on Thursday, “where you live and what type of school you attend” continues to exercise “too big an influence on opportunities”.
Changing that will mean targeting teaching and other resources more effectively to where they are needed, but also abandoning overly rigid educational strategies. Students are required to sit far too many exams and there should be more scope for assessment though coursework. Broadening the curriculum, to include more practical and creative options, would create space for a wider range of talents and interests to be developed and explored.
The signs are that Labour’s curriculum review will recommend moves in this direction. A stated determination to strengthen vocational paths is also to be applauded – although similar promises have been made, and then broken, by past governments. A quick win would be to rethink the rules on maths and English GCSE requirements, which are unnecessarily closing down possibilities for hundreds of thousands of young people.
In Bridget Phillipson, the government has appointed a working-class education secretary with a declared egalitarian mission. The first set of GCSE and A-level results on her watch – and the attainment gap that they lay bare – confirm the need for a reset. After more than a decade of drift, inequalities that long pre-date Covid need finally to be addressed.