Key takeaways from 2024's GCSE results

The students receiving their GCSE and other Level 2 results this year had not even heard of "Covid" when they first entered secondary school.

Most of these students began Year 7 in September 2019, spending just a few months settling in and making friends before being thrust into remote learning in the spring. The amount of time spent in online lessons over the next two years varied based on location and access to technology like laptops.

In Wales and Northern Ireland, they are also the first to return to pre-pandemic grading standards.

Here are some key things to note:

1. GCSE grades have dropped again.
   For the third consecutive year, the GCSE pass rate across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland has declined. This year, 67.6% of all grades were at 4/C or above, down from 68.2% last year, bringing the overall pass rate back to 2019 levels—the last time exams were held before Covid. This rate is significantly lower than in 2020 and 2021, when grades were determined by teachers' assessments due to exam cancellations.

   
   

2. The drop is steepest in Northern Ireland.
   This year, the percentage of GCSEs marked at 4/C or above is 67.4% in England (down from 67.8% in 2023), 61.7% in Wales (down from 64.5%), and 82% in Northern Ireland (down from 86.6%). While some students in Wales and Northern Ireland may be disappointed by these steep declines, the broader context is important. The goal has been to bring grades back in line with pre-pandemic levels after the sharp increases in 2020 and 2021. In England, the exams regulator aimed to achieve this return last year, but grades were slightly higher. This year, however, the pass rate aligns closely with 2019. In Wales and Northern Ireland, this year marks the planned return to pre-Covid grading standards.

3. The regional divide is widening in England.
   London continues to be the highest-performing region, with 72.5% of entries graded at 4/C or above, while the West Midlands has the lowest rate at 63.1%. The gap between these regions has grown from 8.7 percentage points last year to 9.4 this year, up from 6.8 in 2019. More broadly, the North-South divide that existed before Covid persists, with four out of five regions in the North and Midlands seeing lower pass rates than in 2019, while every region in the South has seen an increase. The Northern Powerhouse think tank attributes these regional differences largely to varying proportions of long-term disadvantaged children. Different levels of Covid disruption also played a role, and MPs have warned it could take a decade to narrow the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others to pre-pandemic levels.

   
   

4. Resits to increase as many fail maths or English.
   The pass rate for 16-year-olds taking English language and maths in England is slightly lower than last year but better than in 2019. However, because the 16-year-old population has grown since the pandemic, the number of students failing these subjects is higher than in both 2019 and 2023. In England, students need a grade 4 or above in maths and English GCSEs to progress to further study, although they can retake these exams while studying new subjects. Colleges, which already had to expand class sizes and hire more exam halls last year, are now preparing for even more resit students. Data suggests that about 182,000 16-year-olds will need to resit English language, and 176,000 will need to resit maths. The pass rates among 17-year-olds resitting these exams are low—just 22.1% in English language and 18.3% in maths—leading some educational organizations to question whether compulsory GCSE resits are the right approach, with some calling the process "demoralizing."

   
   

   Source: BBC