GCSE Students See Slight Fall In Top Marks

Around 750,000 students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive their GCSE results today, with another year of record-breaking marks expected.

About 30,000 NI-based GCSE students are receiving their grades and while overall the percentage of passes in Northern Ireland remained the same, higher grades have slipped.

In 2010, 75.3% of students won between an A* and a C grade, this year that has dropped by 0.5%.

The Sinn Fein NI Education Minister, John O'Dowd and Employment and Learning Minister, Stephen Farry, have both congratulated young people on this year's GCSE results.

The Education Minister said: "Your excellent results highlight not only your own hard work and determination over many years, but also the inspiration and motivation provided by your parents and teachers.

"Some of you will not get the results you were hoping for and I would encourage you to take advice and study all your options before making a decision, [but], there are different pathways to take you where you want to go," he said.

The Minister added: "A top priority for me as Education Minister is raising standards. We are seeing a reduction in the numbers of pupils leaving school without five good GCSEs including in English and Maths, dropping from 12,000 in 2005/06 to 9,300 in 2009/10.

"That is a real achievement, however, much more work needs to be done. There remains unacceptable achievement gaps at all levels in our system and I intend to do all I can to tackle that."

Stormont Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry, said: "The importance of making an informed decision following exam results is crucial to effective career planning. Taking time now to explore all the options available will pay dividends in the future.

"Whatever results you have achieved there are many opportunities available to you and I would urge you to examine these fully," said the Alliance party Minister.

DUP MLA Mervyn Storey has also congratulated those students who received their GCSE results today.

Mr Storey, who is Chairman of the Assembly's Education Committee, said the results demonstrated that high standards have yet again been maintained.

Performance

Across England, Wales and NI, performance has improved across all levels of grades.

In general too, girls continue to do better than boys and the difference is particularly pronounced at higher grades.

The number of top grades awarded to students has risen every year since the exams were first introduced in 1988, and experts are predicting that as many as one in four GCSE entries could be awarded an A, with one in 12 gaining an A*.

However, there have been fears that the introduction of the English Baccalaureate last year will "demotivate" students who struggle with more academic subjects.

In order to gain the EBacc, pupils have to gain at least a C grade at GCSE English, maths, two science qualifications, a foreign language and either history or geography.

It is not compulsory, but it is feared that schools may try to push pupils towards taking the more traditional qualifications.

Dr Mary Bousted, from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "There will be some great results, I have no doubt, but, if the government has its way, this year's 16-year-olds will be the last to have had a real choice of subjects and qualifications.

"Michael Gove's English Baccalaureate is likely to restrict the range of subjects taught to GSCE.

"This risks demotivating and alienating the thousands of young people who struggle with academic subjects and would be better suited to taking a wider variety of subjects to give them the skills for a range of careers. Both acadmeic and vocational study are important, and the government's desire to see a two-tier hierarchy of qualifications is not just unhelpful, but unfair.

"We hope that those pupils, whose schools felt pressured into changing their GSCE subjects midway to meet the English Baccalaureate, do not suffer as a result. In future we hope that schools resist pressure to push pupils into studying subjects just because they are favoured by whoever is Minister for Education, and concentrate on what's in the best interests of all their pupils."

See: 'Record-breaking Results' For GCSE Students

(KMcA/BMcC)