A-level results: regional and private school divides increase despite jump in top grades

There is still a “two-tier” system in A-level results, academics have said, with students in London and the South East more likely to pick up the highest grades than their peers in the North.

Students across the region received their A-level exam results yesterday, with the best marks nationwide since 2010.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, the proportion A* and A grades hit 24.6 per cent, a noticeable rise from 23 per cent last year and 23.2 per cent in 2019.

London and the South East were still significantly higher, with 31 per cent of pupils getting A* and As.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility, said: “These results highlight the stark regional divides that characterise our education system.

“When it comes to A-level results, we effectively have a two-tier system: London and the South East versus the rest of the country.”

Earlier this week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson pledged to turn around “baked-in” educational inequalities, to ensure young people from all backgrounds have a chance to “get on in life” after leaving school.

Another divide which widened with yesterday’s A-level results was the gap between state and private school pupils.

Figures for 2024 show the gulf in achievement at grade C and above is the biggest in any year since 2018, when current data began.

State school pupils are also falling behind in terms of A* to A grades.

In total, almost half (49.4 per cent) of A-level entries at independent schools this year were awarded A and above, compared with less than a quarter (22.3 per cent) at comprehensives.

Prof Elliot Major said: “This year’s results reveal one of the most troubling trends in the post-pandemic era: a widening divide in top A-level grades between private and state school students.

“It is simply not acceptable that private school pupils are more than twice as likely to secure top A or A* grades compared with their state school counterparts.”

He added: “The problem for today’s generations, and a Government committed to dismantling barriers to opportunity, is that the social mobility dials are currently pointing in the wrong direction.

“Amid Covid upheavals, rising child poverty and record levels of school absenteeism and mental health needs, it’s a marvel that so many teenagers have excelled in their studies.”

It comes as Education Secretary, Ms Phillipson, said private schools facing closure following the Government’s plan to impose VAT on fees were already seeing “big budget shortfalls”.

From January, Labour plans to remove the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools to enable funding for 6,500 new teachers in state schools.

Stories have emerged of private schools claiming they will have to close because of the policy, although Ms Phillipson said they already had financial issues.

The Education Secretary told Sky News: “Private schools are businesses that can make choices about how they manage their budgets, the level of fees that they charge, and ultimately it’s about how attractive they are to families in terms of the numbers of students that are sent there.”

She added: “We have seen private schools in recent years whack up their fees year on year, way beyond inflation, and that has priced out lots of people.

“I think that we’ve seen with some of the examples that are being discussed are schools that were already experiencing big budget shortfalls, weren’t attracting the same numbers of students that they might like to attract, and that’s what’s driving what we see here now.”