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Education working hard to address discrepancy between English and maths results

Education working hard to address discrepancy between English and maths results

Tuesday 17 October 2023

Education working hard to address discrepancy between English and maths results

Tuesday 17 October 2023


The percentage of students achieving grade four and above in GCSE/Level 2 maths in 2023 was 57.7%. This is more than 5% lower than 2022.

The figure has been wheedled out by Deputy Heidi Soulsby via a series of Rule 14 questions put to the Committee of Education, Sport and Culture.

She put the following question to the President of ESC: 

“On 24 August 2023 the Committee issued a media release headed ‘GCSE/Level 2 Results Published’. Detailed in the release were the percentage of students who had achieved a Level 4 or above in both GCSE English language or literature and maths for each of the State Maintained schools from 2019 to 2023. However, a similar analysis was not provided for English and maths separately. Please can you provide this analysis.” 

In response ESC provided the following table: 

Screenshot_2023-10-17_at_11.18.36.png 

While Deputy Soulsby asked for the figures to be provided for each State maintained school, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen said that wouldn’t be possible. 

It should also be noted that, although the questions could be interpreted as asking for the requested data to be provided at a school-specific level, it is premature to provide the data in that format for two reasons:  

1) as explained above, the data has yet to be validated following the completion of the formal appeals process and it is the Committee’s usual practice that that the non-validated data is not shared publicly beyond that reported on ‘results day’; and... 

2) the validated data is published in the Committee’s Annual Report in January, so as to allow time for the validated data to be shared and discussed with the Committee and shared with each settings’ Interim Governing Board for discussion at their Autumn governance meeting with each setting, before the information is released more widely. 

Dudley-Owen.PNG

Pictured: Deputy Dudley-Owen said an examination appeals process is still underway in respect of the 2023 results.  

“Readers should be reassured that, as confirmed in the President’s Update Statement to the States of Deliberation on Wednesday 27th September 2023, our education professionals are working hard to address the discrepancy between results in English and maths,” continued Deputy Dudley-Owen. 

“Every States maintained school underwent an in-depth maths review during the last academic year and our educationalists and teaching professionals are deploying considerable energy to ensure standards improve in this vital area having undertaken a similar improvement programme in English in the recent past which is already showing improvement in younger year groups.  

“Secondary schools are halfway through a two-year programme focusing on improving maths.  They have a new, very detailed curriculum alongside online tutoring access for all and consultant support to help improve outcomes.” 

Deputy Soulsby asked three questions in total, and you can read the full Q&A HERE.

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