The number of local authority areas with declining Year 1 phonics pass rates rose to 83 this year, up from just six in 2018.

Today’s provisional statistics, published by the Department for Education (DfE), show a 14-fold increase in the number of local authority areas where pass rates dropped, as the proportion of 5- and 6-year-olds achieving the government’s expected standard by the end of Year 1 fell nationally for the first time.

Of the 147 LEAs with available data, 83 (56 per cent) recorded a decrease in the proportion of pupils passing the screening tests between 2018 and 2019.

News: Phonics results - Slight drop in pass rate

Advice: 13 things you need to know about phonics

Viewpoint: Why the phonics screening check doesn’t work

In Rochdale, the pass rate dropped by four percentage points this year from 82 per cent to 78 per cent. The same was true for Wigan, where the pass rate fell from 84 per cent in 2018 to 80 per cent in 2019.

The national pass rate this year was 82 per cent.

In 10 other areas, the proportion of children meeting the expected standard fell by three percentage points.

The City of London and Isles of Scilly are not included in today’s dataset due to their size, while Dorset Council, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council have no applicable data prior to 2019.

There were 80 local authority areas where pass rates among boys declined this year, compared with 11 in 2018.

And 85 areas saw a drop in the proportion of girls meeting the expected standard, compared with 19 last year.

Campaign group More Than A Score said: “The DfE is choosing to ignore the fact that almost one in five 5- and 6-year-olds have been branded failures and will have to sit this test again in a year’s time. 

“Drilling children in nonsense words just to sit a formal test is the wrong way to inspire [a] love of reading. 

“The phonics screening check is another stop on the conveyor belt of pointless testing in primary schools. It provides no useful information to teachers or parents.” 

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, added: “The over-emphasis on phonics has distorted the teaching of reading in schools, and has produced no discernible increase in children’s ability to read with understanding and pleasure.

“The phonics check is another example of a test which undermines, rather than supports, the principle of a broad and engaging curriculum in primary schools. The union calls for it to be independently reviewed, so that its value and effects can be objectively evaluated.”

School standards minister Nick Gibb said phonics provide a “solid foundation” for learning.

“If children are to achieve their full potential it’s vital that they are given firm foundations to build on - and that’s what these statistics show is happening,” he said.

“Mastering phonics, which provides a solid foundation for reading, along with basic numeracy and literacy, means these pupils will be able go on to apply these skills in more and more advanced ways.

“It’s because of the hard work of teachers and our keen focus on raising standards at the earliest stages of education that we’ve been able to see these results.”  

The results released today also revealed that 91 per cent of pupils had met the standard by the end of Year 2, down by less than half a percentage point compared with 2018.