Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students who have not achieved at least a C grade in English and mathematics GCSE will be required to resit those exams as many times as it takes them to achieve that grade.

Departmental funding rules require full time students with prior attainment of a D to work towards achieving a C grade or higher in GCSE English and maths. Students who achieve lower than a D grade at 16 may study other qualifications such as Functional Skills as a ‘stepping stone’ towards GCSE.

For those opting to retake their GCSE(s) or being required to do so due to having previously attained a grade D, there is no requirement for them to repeatedly re-sit the GCSE exam. Schools and colleges have the freedom to determine when a student is ready to re-sit their GCSE. This is because our 16-19 English and maths requirements relates to enrolments rather than exam entries. This provides a school or college the flexibility to determine when best for a student to be entered for and sit an exam. For some students that might be the following November, while other students may require

a year, or two years study and tuition before they are ready to re-sit the exam.

If students resit their GCSE part way through their programme and fail to gain a grade C then they are expected to continue studying for the GCSE.