After Covid Ofqual sought a rapid return to normal results in England - but other UK nations went slower

Why have A-level grades fallen this year? The sharp drop in grades in A-level results in England this year has little to do with this particular cohort's ability. It is, instead, the result of a government strategy to get A-level results back to prepandemic levels, after the soaring grade inflation of the Covid years.

- Sally Weale

The exams regulator in England, Ofqual, came up with the plan after teenagers who did their A-levels in 2020 and 2021 were awarded record grades. Results were significantly higher in 2020 than the previous year, after Covid closed schools, exams were cancelled and grades were eventually awarded on the basis of teacher assessment, after a badly botched attempt to use an algorithm to award them under the then education secretary, Gavin Williamson.

Results were even higher in 2021, when teacher-assessed grades once again replaced exams as Covid continued to wreak havoc on schools and children's education. A record 44.3% of A-level entries were awarded an A or A* in England that year, compared with a little over 25% of entries in 2019, when students were assessed by exams.

Ministers were concerned that a huge gap was opening up between grades achieved before and since the pandemic, so decided that grades in A-levels and GCSEs had to be brought back to pre-pandemic levels. But instead of a sudden drop year-on-year, the government and Ofqual agreed on a more gentle "glide path" back to pre-pandemic grading, spread over two years.

Students sitting exams last year - the first exams since 2019 - were granted a number of special aids and measures in recognition of the amount of learning they had lost during the pandemic. In addition, exams were graded midway between those of 2019 and those assessed by teachers in 2021. As a result, 35.9% of all entries were awarded top grades last year.