GCSE: Mathematics

(asked on 2nd December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils did not achieve a grade 4 or above in GCSE Maths in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19 and (c) 2019-20.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 7th December 2020

The Department publishes the number of pupils at the end of key stage 4[1] who achieved the English and maths pillars of the English Baccalaureate[2],[3]. The attached table shows the percentage of pupils who did not achieve Ebacc pillars for English and Maths for each of the last 3 years.

The cancellation of the summer 2020 GCSE exams and the substantially changed method for awarding GCSE grades has impacted greatly on the results. Comparisons with earlier years are not recommended for the purposes of measuring changes in underlying pupil performance.

[1] Pupils are identified as being at the end of key stage 4 if they were on roll at the school and in year 11 at the time of the January school census for that year. Age is calculated as at 31 August for that year, and the majority of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were age 15 at the start of the academic year. Some pupils may complete this key stage in an earlier or later year group.

[2] All State-funded schools include local authority maintained mainstream schools, academies, free schools, city technology colleges, further education colleges with provision for 14 to 16 year-olds and state-funded special schools. They exclude independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision. Alternative provision includes academy and free school alternative provision.

[3] Link to published data: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-performance-revised.

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