Impact of Covid-19 on GCSE Students

In a significant shift, the GCSE pass rate across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland has dropped for the third consecutive year, returning to pre-pandemic levels. The overall pass rate stands at 67.6% for grades 4/C or above, a slight decrease from 68.2% last year. This marks a stark contrast to the inflated results of 2020 and 2021, when exams were canceled and grades were determined by teacher assessments. In England, the exams regulator had anticipated a return to 2019 grading standards, achieving a pass rate of 67.4%, down from 67.8% in 2023. However, Wales and Northern Ireland experienced a steeper decline, with a notable 9.4 percentage-point gap from 2019 levels, up from 8.7 last year. The disparities in performance are evident, with London emerging as the highest-performing region, while the West Midlands and North East recorded the lowest pass rates. The results reveal that four out of five regions in the North and Midlands saw lower pass rates compared to 2019, while every region in the South experienced an increase. Among 16-year-olds taking English language and maths in England, the pass rates are slightly worse than last year but still better than in 2019. With the requirement for students to achieve grade 4 or above in these subjects for further study, a significant number will need to resit, with 182,000 students required to retake English language and 176,000 for maths.