Record high for GCSE results after exams cancelled
Students are opening their results today
More pupils than ever have got top-grade GCSEs after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid-19.
This year results have been determined by teachers and pupils have only been tested on what they have been taught during the pandemic.
On Tuesday there was a record high for A-level grades as those students also faced teacher assessment instead of exams.
More top grade GCSEs than ever before
Overall, 28.9% of UK GCSE entries were awarded one of the three top grades this year, compared to 26.2% last years, figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland show.
In 2019, when exams were last held, only a fifth (20.8%) of entries achieved at least a 7 – the equivalent of an A grade.
Our Westminster Correspondent Georgie Prodromou spoke to Labour's Shadow Minister for Further Education, who says the assessments should be more uniform:
Girls widen the GCSE gap
The results show that girls have pulled further ahead than boys amid the rise in top GCSE grades this year.
The gap between boys and girls achieving one of the top three grades has risen from eight percentage points in 2020 to nine percentage points this year.
Best GCSE results ever
According to figures from Ofqual, the number of 16-year-old students in England who entered seven or more GCSEs and received a 9 – the highest grade under the numerical grading system – in all subjects has risen.
Some 3,606 students in England received straight 9s this summer, compared with 2,645 in 2020 and 837 in 2019.
More than three in four (77.1%) of UK entries were awarded at least a 4 – broadly the equivalent of a C – last year, which is up by 0.8 percentage points on last year when 76.3% achieved the grades.
In 2019, just over two in three (67.3%) entries achieved at least a grade 4.
The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover GCSE entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Traditional A*-G grades have been scrapped and replaced with a 9-1 system amid reforms, with 9 the highest. A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade, and a 7 broadly equivalent to an A.