“This analysis shines a much-needed light on the long legacy of GCSE results and how the current system serves to entrench disadvantage. Schools and colleges work incredibly hard to support all of their students and close educational gaps. However, policymakers need to understand that the way in which the GCSE system works is a problem in itself. This is because it ranks students against one another with the inevitable consequence that some will always do better and some will always do worse.
“It is often the case that those who do worse are students from disadvantaged backgrounds, or with special educational needs, for the simple fact that these young people face many more challenges in their lives. The odds are stacked against them and the impact is most damaging in GCSE English and maths, as these are gateway qualifications to many courses and careers.
“We have proposed on many occasions the introduction of a different type of qualification for English and maths which would give all young people the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency against a predetermined standard – similar to a driving test – rather than the hard and unforgiving filter of the current system.”