Education secretary Gillian Keegan has defended the government’s policy of compulsory maths and English GCSE resits amid calls to end the cycle of potentially unsuccessful retakes for those who do not secure a first-time pass.
Reacting to GCSE results, headteachers’ unions, academics and educationalists have called on the government to reform the system so pupils are not stuck in a “demoralising” cycle of retakes.
When asked about whether it was time to scrap compulsory resits, Ms Keegan said: “It’s really important that people have maths and English. That’s why we do resits.
“You can see in the data that people do a lot better over their lifetime if they get maths and English. So it is worth persevering, and we’re getting a lot more help to those people who need to catch up with maths and English as well.”
In England, many students who do not secure at least a grade 4 - which is considered a “standard pass” - in English and maths GCSEs are required to retake the subjects during post-16 education.
Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, said she was “concerned” about the rising numbers asked to resit maths and English.
She said that the evidence shows the pass rate is low and “that is something that the government needs to look at”.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “Returning to the former standards has meant many more have failed to get a grade 4, and there isn’t a high pass rate in retakes. The message from that is that the government really ought to look again at its policy of retakes.”
In a report published earlier this week, Professor Smithers said that in 2022, just 22 per cent of retake entries in maths received a “pass mark” - a grade 4 or above - while the pass rate for English was 31.3 per cent.
Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “There’ll be more young people required to carry on studying for these qualifications in an already stretched post-16 sector. As things stand, many are unlikely to achieve a pass even through resits.
“This has serious implications for individual students’ life chances. It is likely that those from socioeconomically-disadvantaged backgrounds will be most affected, so the attainment gap must be carefully monitored, and support targeted towards pupils in greatest need of it.”
Students in England are currently funded to retake maths and English until they achieve a GCSE grade 9 to 4.
For students with a grade 2 or below, they can either study towards a pass in functional skills level 2 or towards a GCSE grade 9 to 4.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Urgent change is needed to the current government policy, which forces some students into what can be a dispiriting round of resits for maths and English until they achieve the required grade.”
Rather than endure potentially unsuccessful resits, Ms Hannafin says the government needs to look at the flexibility of offering alternative qualifications in maths and English to some students.
She said: “Students who need to continue their learning in maths and English post-16 should not be forced into repeated resits, which can lead them to feel disillusioned and disengaged.
“They should be able to take the qualification they and their school or college deem most appropriate, be that a GCSE, or a functional skills or other relevant qualification - enabling them to move forward with their education, training or employment.”
Earlier this week, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called for a “more humane qualification system” where students failing to achieve a “pass” grade in English and maths GCSEs are not accepted as “collateral damage”.
He has called for a “new style” of English and maths qualification to sit alongside the current system.
