Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether sufficient attention is being paid to enhancing the skills of students over the age of 16 in English and maths for those who have (1) have, and (2) have not, achieved a C grade in either subject at GCSE.

This Government has made a historic commitment to address long-standing concerns about the literacy and maths skills of young people in England. The Department for Education is reforming the English and mathematics curriculum and qualifications to be academically rigorous, and to keep pace with universities’ and employers’ demands. We want to make sure that young people have access to English and mathematics education that set expectations matching those in the highest performing countries.

The Department is also reforming A and AS levels in English and mathematics to make sure they properly equip students for higher education. Students will start to study the new A levels in English from September 2015. Reformed A and AS levels in mathematics will be introduced from September 2016.

New level 3 Core Maths qualifications are currently being piloted and will become available from 2015. These new qualifications encourage students to continue the study of mathematics post-16. The Government is providing £20 million in 2014-16 to support piloting and to build capacity to teach the new Core Maths qualifications in schools, sixth form colleges and further education colleges.

From 2015, students will be able to study new GCSEs in English and mathematics. These reformed qualifications will provide greater assurance of strong English, literacy and mathematics.

In July 2012, the Government announced that students that did not hold at least a C grade GCSE would have to continue to study English and mathematics from age 16 to 18 or the institution they attend would lose funding. More recently, Minister Hancock announced that, from September 2015, students holding a D grade in English and/or mathematics would have to take a GCSE course only rather than an alternative stepping stone qualification.

Since 2012, the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have been working with the sector and stakeholders to prepare for the expansion of post-16 GCSE teaching. A two-year, £30 million further education workforce package has been introduced, focusing on training existing teachers and recruiting more graduates to teach English and mathematics at GCSE level.