Tougher GCSES help boys close the gap
The GCSE gender gap is now at its narrowest in seven years under the new “tougher” exams. This year 23.3 per cent of students in England were awarded either A or A* in the old system, or 7, 8 or 9 in the new system. Girls remain in the lead with 23.4 per cent achieving the top grades, the same as last year, compared with 17.1 per cent of boys, up from 16.2 per cent last year. But the gap in top grades between boys and girls is at its narrowest since 2010.
THE new “tougher” GCSE exams appear to benefit boys as the gender gap is now at its narrowest in seven years.
This year 23.3 per cent of students in England were awarded the highest grades of either A or A* in the old system, or 7, 8 or 9 in the new system.
Girls remain in the lead with 23.4 per cent achieving the top grades, the same as last year, compared with 17.1 per cent of boys, up from 16.2 per cent last year.
But the gap in top grades between boys and girls is at its narrowest since 2010, with boys now just 6.3 per cent behind girls, down from 7.2 per cent last year.
It is thought that the reformed GCSES – many of which have had coursework elements reduced or removed altogether – favour boys, who are generally better at exams than coursework.
Yesterday around 590,000 pupils travelled to their schools to pick up their results. They were the first year group to take the new GCSES in a broad range of subjects. The exams were created by Michael Gove, the former education secretary, as part of an attempt to inject rigour into the qualifications.
Neil Sheldon, a chief examiner and former vice-president at the Royal Statistical Society, said: “It seems to have been the case that girls were given a boost by the introduction of coursework. It got to the stage where removing
coursework is seen as something that would even out boys and girls.
“The political imperative at the moment would be to say that we do need to get a balance so the outcomes for boys and girls are the same. Whether it is educationally desirable is a totally different issue.”
Many of the reformed GCSES have had their coursework element vastly reduced or axed altogether. Coursework used to make up 40 per cent of English literature and language but it has been reduced to zero.
History, geography, biology, chemistry and physics used to each have 25 per cent coursework, all of which have been taken out. Meanwhile, French, Spanish and German have all had their coursework elements reduced from 60 to 25 per cent. The reformed GCSES, which are only taken in England, are marked in grades of 9 to 1 rather than A* to G.
The numerical grades were designed to separate the very highest achievers, with both and 8 and a 9 equivalent to the old A*. Girls continued to dominate in achieving the coveted grade 9s. A total of 197,545 were given out this year, making up 4.3 per cent of all grades in the reformed subjects. Of these, around 115,818 went to girls (59 per cent) and 81,727 went to boys (41 per cent).
A total of 732 students were awarded a clean sweep of 9s, with girls winning almost two thirds (62 per cent) of these. There were huge disparities in the proportion of 9 grades handed out across different subjects. In classical subjects – Latin and Ancient Greek – 37.8 per cent of all exams were graded 9. Meanwhile, just two per cent of students taking English Language achieved a 9.
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: “Thanks to our reforms and the hard work of teachers, education standards are rising in our schools and pupils have shown their abilities by achieving excellent results today, with so many pupils meeting and exceeding the standards we expect.”