GCSE pass rates fall as students pick up their grades
Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been picking up their GCSE results today
The percentage of students passing their GCSEs has fallen according to results today.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are picking up their GCSE exam results today.
The proportion of GCSEs awarded top grades has fallen from last year but is higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, national figures show.
It was expected grades would return to pre-pandemic levels in all three nations this year.
More than a fifth (21.8%) of UK GCSE entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade – this year, down 0.2 percentage points on last year when 22.0% of entries achieved the top grades.
This is higher than the equivalent figure for 2019 – before the pandemic disrupted schooling – of 20.8%.
The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover GCSE entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
GCSE 'pass' rates fall
The proportion of entries getting at least a 4 or a C grade – considered a “standard pass” – has fallen from 68.2% in 2023 to 67.6% this year – a drop of 0.6 percentage points, but higher than 67.3% in 2019.
The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9%, down from 98.0% in 2023 and 98.3% in 2019.
In England, exams regulator Ofqual said it expected this year’s national results to be “broadly similar” to last summer, when grades were brought back in line with pre-pandemic levels.
In Wales and Northern Ireland, exam regulators aimed to return to pre-pandemic grading this summer – a year later than in England.
It comes after Covid-19 led to an increase in top GCSE and A-level grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.
According to figures from Ofqual, the number of 16-year-old students in England who received a 9 – the highest grade under the numerical grading system – in all their subjects has risen on last year.
Some 1,270 16-year-olds in England taking at least seven GCSEs achieved a grade 9 in all their subjects, compared with 1,160 last year and 837 in 2019.
But the overall number of entries for GCSE has increased by 4.8% on last year.
While traditional A*-G grades are used in Northern Ireland and Wales, in England these have been replaced with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest.
A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade, and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.
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