The pass rate for GCSE maths resits in England has fallen, after more students had to take their exams again.
November’s exam results show 22.9% of maths entries were marked at a grade 4, a standard pass, or above, down from 24.9% in 2022 and 26.9% in 2019.
However, the pass rate for GCSE English resits rose to 40.3% – up from 38% and 32.3% respectively.
Under-18s in England must retake GCSE English and maths if they did not get at least a grade 4.
Exams sat in November are typically resits, although students can also resit in the summer.
The fall in the maths pass rate comes after the government announced plans to replace A-levels and T-levels with a new Advanced British Standard, which would include some English and maths to 18.
Ahead of the November 2023 resits, colleges told the BBC they were having to expand class sizes and hire exam halls to cope with a rising number of pupils taking compulsory GCSE resits.
- How does the GCSE grading system work?
- Class sizes grow to keep up with GCSE resits
GCSE passes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland fell in the summer – with 68.2% of all entries marked at grades 4/C and above.
The drop was steepest in England, where grades were brought back in line with 2019 after spikes in top grades during the pandemic.
As a result, more than 167,000 students in England received grade 3 or lower on their maths paper this summer – about 21,000 more than in 2022.
A further 172,000 failed English language – 38,000 more.
Combined, that is the highest number in a decade.
At the same time, there are more teenagers coming through the system.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests there will be a 17% rise in the number of 16 and 17-year-olds between 2019 and 2024 – an extra 200,000 young people.
There were 117,098 entries for maths and English in November – compared with 91,357 in 2022 and 102,960 in 2019.
Tom Middlehurst, assessment specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the results showed that resitting exams was a “miserable experience” for students who were in a “remorseless cycle of falling below the Grade 4 bar”.
“If a student has not grasped a key concept in maths, then it is difficult for them to do well in this subject,” he said – adding that schools and colleges have tried to help students catch up on “lost learning” because of the Covid pandemic, but have “constrained resources”.
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