Harder exams...

‘Difficult’ new GCSEs branded a damp squib as markers go easy on pupils

GCSE results improved this year despite reforms to make courses tougher – because of ‘lenient’ grading by exam boards.

The rise means the proportion getting good grades is back at the same level it was in 2016, the last year pupils sat the old exams.

Yesterday, one-fifth of all entries got at least a grade 7, which is aligned with the old A, and two-thirds got at least a 4, equivalent to the old C. And in one subject, more than a third got the new 9 grade, which is supposed to be the same as a very high A* and awarded for exceptional results.

In many subjects, good grades were handed out for only mediocre performance – with scores of just 20 per cent needed for a 4 in one higher tier maths paper. Hundreds of thousands of teenagers collected their GCSE results yesterday, having been the first cohort to sit the new tougher exams in most mainstream subjects.

The reforms were pioneered in England by then-education secretary Michael Gove in an effort to raise standards following years of grade inflation under New Labour.

Some pupils who took the new exams were left in tears because they found the tests so difficult, and overall performance had been expected to drop dramatically. But regulator Ofqual told exam boards to set grade boundaries low to ensure results did not fall and remain broadly similar to last year’s.

The watchdog said it was necessary to ensure this year’s candidates were not ‘disadvantaged’. Yesterday, Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, called into question whether the changes had been worth it.

He said: ‘It has been a bit of a damp squib. Michael Gove said we would get these new tougher exams and grades, and what has happened is that results, if anything, have gone up. Where did the new, more searching, examinations go? It seems they went into Ofqual and then disappeared. Ofqual has predetermined the outcomes and awarded grades leniently to fit them.

‘The whole education system has had all of this upheaval, and now it seems we are not even getting the benefits of the reforms.’

The numerical system of 9-1 was introduced to allow more differentiation among the brightest candidates and bring school standards up to those of other high-flying countries. New GCSEs have more challenging content and coursework, generally seen to be easier, has been scrapped.

Exam board data yesterday showed 66.9 per cent of pupils received at least a grade 4 – or C – a 0.5 point rise. The proportion getting at least a 7 – or A – has also risen by 0.5 percentage points, to 20.5 per cent. In addition, 732 of those taking at least seven new GCSEs scored a clean sweep of 9s in all subjects – much more than the 200 some experts predicted. In classics, 37.7 per cent of entries scored a 9 – which could be because these subjects are mostly taught in private schools.

In many of the higher tier papers, taken by cleverer students, grade boundaries have been set lower than in 2016 – the last year of the

easier exams. In the edexcel maths paper, only 20 per cent was needed for a 4, compared with 30.5 per cent in 2016. In the board’s physics paper, 25.5 per cent scored a 4, compared with 46 per cent two years ago.

The vast majority of entries in england were for the new-style GCSes this year, with 20 subjects, including the sciences, languages, history and geography moving over to the new system.

They join english and maths, which were awarded numerical grades for the first time last summer. Yesterday 17.5 per cent of entries scored at least a 7 in english, up from 16.8 per cent in 2017. In maths, 20 per cent got at least a 7, up from 19.9 per cent.

School standards minister nick Gibb congratulated pupils, saying that thanks to the reforms and teachers’ hard work, ‘education standards are rising’.