Record rise in GCSE results

Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are celebrating the biggest increase in A* - C GCSEs pass rates since 1992.

The overall A* - C pass rate rose by 2% this year to 61.2%, the Joint Council for Qualifications reported.

The A* - C pass rate in maths also increased by 1.7 percentage points to 53.4% - the biggest rise for five years, while the same results in English increased by one percentage point to 60.9%. The overall pass rate increased by 0.2% to 97.8%.

However, there have been concerns over the drop in number of students taking languages. The number of students taking French and German fell by 14.4% and 13.7% respectively.

P.E. entries had the biggest increase of entries at 7.5%.

David Hart, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said: “The results are excellent news for students and teachers, but there are real concerns. It is obvious that students are understandably playing the system by studying their stronger subjects outside the compulsory core of English, Maths and Science. The entry patterns for science and modern foreign languages make this abundantly clear. We are in danger of reaching a position where league tables and Ofsted are driving the system in a way which is not in the interests of the students nor in the interests of this country.”

Mr Hart also described the drop in entries for foreign languages as a “catastrophe”. He urged the government to reverse the policy allowing students to drop foreign languages at 14.

Schools Minister Jacqui Smith said that the government was committed to increasing the take-up of modern languages and said that was why all primary school children would have the opportunity to learn a language by 2010.

However, Mr Hart said: “What is the use of requiring all primary children to study a language by 2010 if they can then drop it at 14?”

The Institute of Directors also expressed concerns at the level of competence in the basic skills of English and Maths in GCSE students. Richard Wilson, Head of Business Policy at the IoD, said: “We have been told by 95% of our members that the Government’s key priority for education should be to improve standards in English and maths. Today’s GCSEs results show that we still have much further to go: only about 52% of pupils achieved a grade C or above in mathematics and only about 60% secured a grade C or above in English.

“We need to ensure that more pupils leave school with good GCSE results in these two key subject areas, otherwise further progression in education and training is difficult.”

(KMcA/SP)