GCSE pupils ‘need better grades’ to compete with best in the world: study

TENS OF thousands more teenagers need to score good grades in GCSE English and maths to put the nation on a par with the best-performing countries in the world, according to research.

In maths particularly, England has work to do to match the average performance of youngsters in places such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) study found.

The findings, which come in the week that teenagers receive their GCSE results, show that England’s pupils should be aiming to get new grade 5s in English and maths, the EPI said, rather than 4s – which are broadly equivalent to C grades under the traditional grading system.

Researchers used data from international tests in maths and reading and last year’s GCSE results to compare performance between nations. The study concludes that in maths, students in England need to score around two thirds of a grade higher on average to match the performance of youngsters in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Japan.

It means that under the traditional A*-G grading system, which is being phased out, an extra 96,000 pupils would have to score the equivalent of at least a B grade, with the number of low-performing pupils (those failing to get a C) falling by 60,000.

In English language, the average grade would also have to increase slightly, with an extra 42,000 youngsters scoring the equivalent of A*-B grades in the subject, in order to match the highest-performing countries in native language reading – such as Singapore.