Last week, 782,000 students across the country received their GCSE, BTEC and A-Level results. On the surface, the results painted a positive picture, with the number of students achieving top GCSE and A-Level results at a record high. Nationally, 44.5% of A-Level students achieved grades equivalent to an A or A*, up by 75% since the last time conventional exams were taken in 2019.
What is concerning, however, is the widening gap between the most and least affluent students. The past eighteen months have been deeply challenging for schools and students. with teachers having to adapt to online learning and battle to keep students learning whilst at home during school closures. Although teachers have worked incredibly hard to support students throughout the crisis, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on poorer students has been exposed in recent research by the Social Mobility Commission.
The Commission warned that so-called ‘learning loss’ has disproportionately affected disadvantaged pupils who, generally, had less access to digital infrastructure, were less able to find quiet places to work and were less likely to have parents who could support at-home learning during school closures. The Commission also noted that poorer students were less likely to have access to additional support like tutoring or subscription education services to support learning when schools were closed or to catch up on lost learning. Worryingly, areas like the North East with higher numbers of disadvantaged pupils suffered greater learning loss levels than other regions.
Due to the pandemic, exams were cancelled for the second year running, leaving hundreds of thousands of students receiving results determined by their teachers. While teacher assessed grades are viewed by many as the fairest way of calculating student grades for students this year, the method of calculation chosen by the Government has drawn criticism from some. With learning loss disproportionately impacting poorer students, some experts argue that students should be assessed on their potential as well as their attainment to prevent poorer students from being disadvantaged due to the pandemic in this year’s results.
The predictions of rising inequality have been borne out in this year’s GCSE and A-Level results, with attainment gaps widening between the wealthiest and least wealthy pupils. The gap between independent schools and comprehensives in A* and A grade A levels, for example, rose from 24% to 31%. The increase in top A-Level grades has generally been concentrated in the most privileged schools, which experts warn could cause pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds to be disadvantaged in the labour market and crowded out of the UK’s top universities. Not only have this week’s results confirmed a widening gap between pupils, but they have also confirmed suspicions that regional gaps in attainment will grow due to the pandemic. In London, almost 48% of results were A* or A grades, compared with 39% in the North East.
With the fears of experts of the pandemic widening inequalities between students being realised, the Government needs to act urgently to support pupils in all regions to achieve. Increased investment in the 16-19 education system, which has seen more funding cut than in other areas of education, will be important to ensure that students who have lost learning during the pandemic can be fully supported to catch up. It will also be vital that universities are creative in offering special consideration to young people from lower-income backgrounds to prevent poorer pupils from being crowded out of university courses. Finally, Government needs to outline and implement a long-term plan for tackling growing inequality in society to ensure that pupils from all backgrounds can achieve in education and progress into high-quality careers.