The new government should rethink “demoralising” and “soul-destroying” compulsory GCSE resits for students who do not achieve a standard pass in English or maths, an education expert has suggested.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said the policy should be replaced with an alternative programme to help teenagers failing the GCSEs “to achieve fluency in handling words and numbers”.
His comments come in a report before students receive their GCSE results on Thursday.
Prof Smithers also called for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure for GCSEs to be scrapped, arguing that take-up will likely “never increase much beyond where it is now”.
Currently, students who do not receive at least a grade 4 in English or maths are required to retake alongside their post-16 education.
Only a minority pass GCSE resits
Prof Smithers said: “It must be soul-destroying to continually have to retake English and/or maths. Surely there is an urgent need for a policy rethink.
“Although [the policy is] well-intended, it looks to be utterly demoralising to pupils who find difficulty with these GCSEs.
“I would suggest that [these exams] do not necessarily embody the grasp of words and numbers that is necessary to cope with life as it is lived.”
In 2023 only 18 per cent of post-16 entrants to maths GCSE passed, and just over a quarter passed English.
Exams regulator Ofqual said it expected this year’s GCSE results to be “broadly similar” to last year’s, when grades were restored to pre-pandemic levels.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in top GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021, with results being based on teacher assessments instead of exams.
But last week the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades surpassed pre-pandemic highs.
Prof Smithers estimated that there could be 70,860 fewer GCSE entries graded 7 or above compared with last year, if grades are returned to what they were in 2019.
But he added: “My best guess is that the grades will not be very different from what they were in 2023; if anything, falling somewhat.”
Call to scrap EBacc
In a report, Prof Smithers sets out how the percentage of students taking five GCSE EBacc subjects has stayed at around 40 per cent since 2014.
“Subject entries also show that the EBacc has not had the impact that was intended, and it has been superseded as an accountability measure by the more flexible Attainment 8 and Progress 8,” he said.
“Nevertheless, the statistics are still collected and published, although it has been stuck for a decade. It is time for it to be scrapped.”
Prof Smithers also reiterated calls for an urgent inquiry into the “chronic underperformance” by boys at GCSE, which he said “should be a matter of national concern”.
“If the present situation is allowed to continue, boys are not benefitting from education in the way they should, and the country is wasting a great deal of talent,” he added.
In Wales and Northern Ireland, exam regulators said they aimed to return to pre-pandemic grading this summer - a year later than in England.
Prof Smithers has also suggested that GCSEs “should not bear exactly the same name” in England, Wales and Northern Ireland because the qualifications have “grown so far apart” in the devolved nations.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We know there are still inequalities embedded in the education system, which is why we are conducting a review of the curriculum to ensure young people get the opportunity to study a broader range of subjects while also gaining the crucial skills that will give them the foundations to succeed in the workplace and throughout their lives, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
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