Excluding the pandemic years, it is the highest proportion of A* grades awarded since they were first handed out for A-levels in 2010. But the overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – has fallen to 97.2 per cent this year, which is lower than last year (97.3 per cent) and the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (97.6 per cent).
The latest statistics also show that the attainment gap between independent schools and comprehensives in England has widened. Some 49.4 per cent of independent school candidates scored A or above in all subjects, compared to 22.3 per cent at comprehensive schools – a gap of 27.1 percentage points, the Ofqual figures show. Last year, the gap was 25.4 percentage points, while in 2019 it was 24.8 percentage points.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has promised to “break down these barriers to opportunity” and “improve children’s life chances regardless of their background”.
She said students across the country should be “be incredibly proud of what they have achieved” in the face of “huge disruption” in recent years as well as “inequality that goes hand in hand with young people’s backgrounds”.
Boys pulled further ahead of girls in securing the very top A* grades, with 9.5 per cent picking up an A*, compared to 9.1 per cent of girls. That gap has grown from a 0.3 percentage point margin last year. But across all grades, girls continued to outperform boys, boosted by a better performance in assessments rather than exams. Figures also show an ongoing attainment gap between north and south within England, with London pulling ahead of other regions.
Esta historia es de la edición August 16, 2024 de The Independent.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 16, 2024 de The Independent.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Ambitious Everton look for upgrade on the Dyche grind
Sean Dyche was never the manager Everton really wanted.
Everton ease to FA Cup win as team reboot starts
They are not used to cheering the men in the technical area.
THE ART OF NOISE
Alt-popper Ethel Cain lashes listeners with sound on her experimental second LP, 'Perverts'. Helen Brown submits
Kidman is utterly fearless in unabashedly sexy 'Babygirl'
Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn has made a BDSM film rife with fumbling uncertainty, and comedy-drama 'A Real Pain' manages to stay honest,
The secret shame that saw Callas retreat into obscurity
She was the opera diva with a tumultuous and tragic private life but something else would derail her career as one of the greatest singers of all time, as Meghan Lloyd Davies explains
At home with Gen Zzzzz
Being boring has never been more in - but Kate Rossiensky wonders if the humblebore lifestyle is a deflection technique
PLAYING DUMB
As the thoroughly decent (and rather smart) Kasim is ejected from 'The Traitors', Helen Coffey asks whether intelligence has become a hindrance that should be concealed at all costs
The woman who cried wolf and fuelled a local race war
When Ellie Williams told of her experience at the hands of a grooming gang, it seemed clear what was right vs wrong. But the truth, writes Zoë Beaty, was much more complicated...
Biden hails 'strength of character' in Carter tribute
Every living American president filed into pews at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday to honour one of their own at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who died late last month at 100 years old.
Wake up and smell the fires
We live in a 'magic bubble' of denial but the LA infernos and Covid before it demonstrate why we must be better prepared
