‘Chronic’ under-performance of boys at GCSE should be treated as major issue

The “chronic” under-performance of boys at GCSE should be treated as a “major issue”, it has been suggested.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at the University of Buckingham, said the talents of boys are not being developed as “fully” as they could be, which could lead to a “decline in the nation’s economic competitiveness”.

The education expert has predicted that “girls will continue to be ahead” of boys at GCSE level.

His comments come before pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their GCSE results on Thursday.

National concern

Prof Smithers said: “The apparent under-performance of boys at this stage of education should be a matter of national concern.

“But because boys are habitually seen as privileged, it does not receive the attention it deserves.”

Last year, more than a fifth (21.8%) of UK GCSE entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade, down from 22.0% in 2023.

But it remained higher than in 2019 – the year before the pandemic – when 20.8% of GCSE entries scored the top grades.

The proportion of total female entries awarded grade 7/A or above was 24.7% last year – 5.7 percentage points higher than total male entries (19.0%).

Prof Smithers said: “The chronic under-performance of boys in education should be treated as a major issue.

“It appears that we are not developing the talents of half the population as fully as we could.

“This can only lead to a decline in the nation’s economic competitiveness and ultimately loss of its standing in the world.”

Pre-pandemic grading

Ofqual brought A-level grading standards back in line with pre-Covid levels in England in 2023, and exam regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland returned to pre-pandemic grading last summer.

The move came after Covid-19 led to an increase in top GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.

Last week, the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades rose again on last year and remained above pre-pandemic highs

Speaking ahead of GCSE results day, Prof Smithers suggested the proportion of GCSE entries scoring the top grades this year was likely to “remain high” compared to 2019 – the year before the pandemic.

He said: “It could be we are seeing the emergence of a new normal in which case 2025 will resemble 2024, or the regulators could make a further push to get back to pre-pandemic levels.”

While traditional A*-G grades are used for GCSE in Northern Ireland and Wales, these have been replaced in England with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest.

A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade, and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.

In England, many students who do not secure at least a grade 4 – which is considered a “standard pass” – in English and/or maths GCSE are required to retake the subjects during post-16 education.

In his report, Prof Smithers reiterated calls for a “policy rethink” on compulsory resits as he suggested they were “soul-destroying” and “utterly demoralising”.

Resit requirement

He said: “There should be an urgent review of the resit requirement, with a view to replacing it with a programme and qualification which would enable those failing the GCSEs to achieve fluency in the use of words and numbers.”

Prof Smithers also reiterated calls for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) – a government measure which aims to ensure pupils take English, maths, science, a humanities subject and a language at GCSE – to be “scrapped” as he suggested the policy had “failed” due to low take-up of foreign languages.

Reflecting on provisional exam entries data for England, Prof Smithers highlighted that GCSE entries for French and German have fallen again.

Spanish has overtaken French as the most popular foreign language at GCSE, provisional figures from Ofqual in June suggest.

In his report, Prof Smithers said: “Quite why there has been this surge in popularity is unclear, but it may have something to do with the increasing popularity of Spanish-speaking countries as holiday destinations.”

He added: “A more prosaic explanation is that Spanish is seen as easier than French or German.”