Controversy over GCSE resit requirement for English and maths amid record drop in grades

This year’s results are the first to include 17-year-old students who were told to retake exams in the two core subjects if they only gained a D last year - despite claims that just one-third go on to better their result, and the improvement is often by half-a-grade.

It comes as the A*-C passrate dipped to 66.9 per cent - while the number of 17-year-olds sitting exams soared from 310,000 to 382,000 this year.

Jill Stokoe, education policy advisor at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) union, said: “The Government must acknowledge that their policy to force 17-year-olds to re-take English and maths until they obtain a pass grade is not in the best interests of students, and is clearly not working because fewer students are passing their re-sits now that they are compulsory.”

She predicted the fall in A*-C grades reflected “the impact of the Government’s ill-thought-out policy” of all students doing the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects - a group of five performance-indicating subjects including English and maths.

She said: “This is making many students study subjects in which they do not excel, rather than subjects in which they would do well and could provide good career opportunities.

“It also means that students cannot focus on improving their English and maths skills.”

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said analysis of previous data showed that youngsters re-sitting GCSEs a year later only improve by half a grade - while a “significant” number actually achieve a lower score.

He said: “Those youngsters getting a middling D have a fighting chance of increasing that to a C.

“Is it, at 17, the best thing for some youngsters to do or are they better to develop their English skills and maths skills, literacy and numeracy, through their existing vocational programmes?”

Asked if the Government should remove the compulsory element, he said: “You have to deal with it on an individual student basis.

“There could be some case for kids who got an E for a specific reason that it would be appropriate for them to do it.

“Your chances of beating Usain Bolt over 100 metres are fairly slim. If you got an F at GCSE English, the chances of you getting a C next time round are fairly low.”

Professor Jo-Anne Baird, director of the department of education at the University of Oxford, said: “The requirement for all to gain grade C standards in English and maths is surely the right aspiration for the education system, but resitting an exam that you failed, maybe because it didn’t engage you in the first place could switch people off to further learning.

“An alternative GCSE that would be more suitable for this large group of students really should be developed.”

A Department for Education spokesman said students who got lower than a D grade aged 16 can do other forms of qualifications in English and maths unless a GCSE grade C or above is required for further study.

He said: “We recognise that this is only part of the answer and there is more to do. We will continue to work with the sector to tackle this issue.”

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: “For those 17-year-olds who have struggled to achieve good grades in maths, we are seeing 4,000 more successful re-takes of those exams, delivering better prospects for every one of those young people.”