Citizenship: Education

(asked on 16th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many schools in England offered Citizenship as a standalone subject in 2009; and how many students were entered into (1) GCSE, and (2) A Level, examinations for Citizenship in that year.


Answered by
Baroness Barran Portrait
Baroness Barran
Shadow Minister (Education)
This question was answered on 25th March 2022

The department does not hold information on the subjects offered by individual schools and colleges. However, the department does publish the number of entries into GCSE Citizenship and A level Citizenship Studies, which can be used as a guide to how many schools and colleges offer these qualifications.

GCSE Citizenship was first introduced as a full course in academic year 2010/11 and the earliest national data held by the department is available for academic year 2011/12. In 2011/12, 10,474 pupils at the end of key stage 4 were entered for GCSE Citizenship and 237 schools entered pupils. In 2018/19, 18,098 pupils at the end of key stage 4 were entered for GCSE Citizenship and 570 schools entered pupils.

A level Citizenship studies became operational in September 2008 and this qualification ended operation in July 2019. There were no pupils aged 16 to 18 who were entered for A level Citizenship studies in academic years 2008/09 or 2018/19. The 2008/09 figure is not published separately but has been included as part of ‘other social studies’ up until and including 2017/18.

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