The number of A-level entries for political studies has increased by 12.8 per cent - and one exam board expert has said it could be down to the “fascinating times” we live in.
This year, there were 17,523 entries in the political studies A level, compared with 15,540 last year.
Speaking at a media briefing this morning, Sharon Hague, senior vice president of Pearson, which runs the exam board Edexcel, said: “You do wonder if the growth in political studies is about young people getting really interested in the world around them. We are living in fascinating times.
“I think that is quite a positive thing that they are not only interested but they are also making sure they are informed about what’s going on.”
‘Interesting times in politics’
Speaking to Tes after the briefing, Suzanne O’Farrell, curriculum and assessment specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “I suppose we have got interesting times, politically, at the moment. Maybe people think, ‘Wow, there is this soap opera playing out.’”
The 10 most popular A-level subjects remained the same as last year - but chemistry overtook history, which endured an 8.1 per cent fall in entries at A level this year. There were 54,731 entries for history this year, compared with 50,311 last year, new figures show.
Mark Bedlow, chief delivery officer of the OCR examination board, said it was “very difficult” for exam boards to know why students and schools had made certain decisions on what to choose.
However, Ms Hague added that the drop in history could be down to a similar fall in pupils sitting the subject at GCSE two years ago. She said: “It may well be that that slight dip could be linked back to the change in the number of students studying history.”
The A-level entries for English also dropped this year by 11.1 per cent for English language and literature, 10.2 per cent for English language and 4.7 per cent by English literature.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, said he was “surprised” by the drop in history and English.
Ms O’Farrell added: “We are a bit concerned about that actually. We don’t know and we can’t really account for it because they are really good facilitating subjects and they enhance all sorts of opportunities and careers later on.
“So we can only think maybe it is to do with Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] and it is an experience lower down the school.”
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