Entries to the November 2024 GCSE English and maths resit series shot up by 21 per cent compared to last year.
Provisional figures published by Ofqual this morning show that 152,610 students retook the subjects this month, up from 125,615 in November 2023.
The rise in entries follows increasing numbers of school-aged pupils who failed to achieve a grade 4 “pass” in the subjects during their GCSEs this summer – 175,898 for maths and 181,682 for English.
There were also more than 100,000 post-16 students in each subject who did not reach the pass mark and would have had to resit the exams again.
Introduced in 2014, the government’s resits policy forces students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English and/or maths GCSE by age 16 to continue to work towards achieving these qualifications as a condition of their places being funded.
GCSE subject breakdown
Today’s data shows GCSE English language entries increased by 28 per cent from 60,365 in November 2023, to 77,005 in November 2024.
GCSE mathematics entries rose by 16 per cent from 65,250 to 75,605 over the same period.
The figures mark yet another steep rise in November entries post-Covid. Entries in 2021 fell 13 per cent, then by a further 10 per cent in 2022 – the years when teacher-assessed grades replaced exams.
November resit entries then shot up by 23 per cent in 2023 and again by 21 per cent this month.
Ofqual pointed out that as well as the change in grading approach, cohort sizes have increased.
“The size of the 16-year-old cohort increased by 13 per cent in 2024 compared with the past five years, from 624,590 16-year-olds in 2020 according to ONS population estimates in 2019 to 706,006 16-year-olds in 2024 according to ONS population estimates in 2023,” the report said.
Catherine Sezen, head of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said colleges are “increasingly finding” themselves under “immense pressure” to be able to accommodate extra students.
She told FE Week: “Colleges want to give students as many opportunities as possible to achieve a grade 4 in English and maths, but are facing many challenges.
“The recruitment and retention crisis, exacerbated by levels of pay, in these subjects mean that some colleges are having to rehire retired teachers, employ agency staff, and train non-specialist staff. There are also issues around space, both in terms of class sizes and for the actual exam days, teaching time and entry fees, all of which cause further strain on students and college budgets.”
Sezen added: “The GCSE resit policy is not sustainable as it currently operates, and the curriculum and assessment review offers a great opportunity to radically rethink English and maths across all phases of education, to ensure all students can gain the skills they need for life beyond college.”
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