GCSE results day: Record level of students receive top grades

11 August 2021, 22:09 | Updated: 12 August 2021, 12:56

GCSE students find out how well they've done on results day

A record level of GCSE students have received top grades for 2021 after exams were cancelled for a second year running.

Schoolchildren woke up on Thursday and received grades that have been based on teacher assessments once again.

For the second year running, GCSE results have been not been determined by formal exams sat in the summer.

The proportion of entries receiving the top grades is the highest on record, with 28.9 per cent being awarded 7/A or above, up from 26.2 per cent in 2020.

Some 77.1 per cent received a 4/C grade or above - another record high, and is up from 76.3 per cent in 2020.

The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 99 per cent, down slightly from 99.6 per cent in 2020.

Read more: A-level results day: Record levels of students receive A or A* grades

Girls extended their lead over boys in the top grades, with the proportion of female entries awarded 7/A or above standing at 33.4 per cent - nine percentage points higher than male entries (24.4 per cent).

Last year, girls led boys by eight percentage points (30.2 per cent girls, 22.2 per cent boys). This year's figures are the highest on record for both girls and boys.

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A surge in top grades could make the job of admissions teams at colleges and sixth forms more difficult, it has been suggested.

Parents could also get behind a campaign to scrap GCSE exams permanently if even more top grades are awarded this year, Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at the University of Buckingham, has suggested.

He said if more top grades are awarded to GCSE pupils this summer it could threaten the future of the exams.

"Plentiful top grades make pupils and parents happy, but they are less helpful for those using the grades for admission to the next stage of education or recruitment to employment," he said.

"With another bumper crop of top GCSE grades, the future of exams at age 16 is likely to come under threat.

"There is already a pressure group to ditch them and if parents get a liking for plentiful top grades they may become involved."

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The proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades rose to a record high last year after grades were allowed to be based on teachers' assessments, if they were higher than the moderated grades given.

Last year, more than one in four (26.2 per cent) of UK GCSE entries were awarded one of the three top grades, compared to a fifth (20.8 per cent) in 2019 - the last year that exams were sat before the pandemic.

This year, teachers drew on a range of evidence, including mock exams, coursework, and in-class assessments using questions by exam boards.

Prof Smithers has suggested that teachers have "put more emphasis on rewarding" students for their efforts, "rather than on the information the qualifications carry into future life".

The cancellation of the summer exams for a second year in a row has prompted some education leaders and politicians to call on ministers to consider reforming GCSEs in the post-Covid years.

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Prof Smithers added: "Schools and teachers do not like GCSE exams because they are judged on their pupils' results in league tables and inspectors' reports. With teacher assessment, they are in control.

"Independent schools do not like GCSE exams either because, with the great majority of their pupils staying on until 18, they interrupt the smooth progression to A-level.

"Many educationists do not want exams at age 16 because they believe they distort the curriculum, are harmful to adolescent well-being, and are biased against the disadvantaged. It'll be quite a task for the Government to put the genie back into the bottle."

Ahead of GCSE results day, Prof Smithers said: "Girls have long been ahead in school work, but the tendency has been to explain away their superior performance.

"When they did better in the 11+, it was said that they matured earlier, when they leapt ahead in GCSEs it was said that it was because they worked harder, and now with teacher assessment the impression is that they are favoured by the teachers.

"Why can't we accept it is just that they are cleverer?"

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Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), is expecting pressure to be placed on admissions teams at sixth forms colleges and schools if grades are inflated this summer.

Speaking to the PA news agency ahead of GCSE results day, Mr Barton warned that some young people could be "turned away" from courses if centres cannot increase capacity due to limited space and staff.

He added: "I think what we'll see admissions tutors doing on Thursday, and heads of sixth form, is doing their best to make sure that irrespective of grades a young person moves on to what they had wanted to do in terms of their course and the course best suited to them.

"Because what we don't want is young people euphoric that they got higher grades than they had hoped for on results day, and then three or four weeks into a new term feeling out of their depth on a course which actually isn't the appropriate course for them.

"I think there'll be quite a lot of work going on behind the scenes, sometimes persuading young people and their parents to stick to what their course of action was."

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Traditional A*-G grades have been scrapped and replaced with a 9-1 system amid reforms, with 9 the highest result. A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade, and a 7 broadly equivalent to an A.

Students receiving GCSE results in England will get numerical grades for all their subjects as all courses have moved over to the grading system.

On Tuesday, the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades reached an all-time high after exams were cancelled, with 44.8 per cent achieving an A or above.

Read more: A-level results day: Record levels of students receive A or A* grades

Pupils who missed out on the grades needed to meet their university offers are likely to face greater competition for a place at leading institutions as there could be fewer courses on offer in clearing.