- Gillian Keegan has been criticized for suggesting that businesses won’t inquire about students’ A-levels in ten years.
- The group of students who would soon receive their A-level results did not take the GCSEs.
- The proportion of submissions graded A* to E has decreased to 97.3% this year.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has come under fire for implying that in ten years, businesses won’t be asking students about their A-levels. The top grades dropped from the previous year, but they are still above pre-pandemic levels, so Keegan advised students not to be discouraged if their results were not what they had hoped for.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary for Labour, referred to Keegan’s remarks as “incredibly rude and dismissive” and charged that she was “talking down England’s young people.”
Gillian Keegan
The group of students who would soon receive their A-level results did not take the GCSEs and were given teacher-assessed grades during the pandemic.
Education authorities have issued a warning that this year’s group would be disappointed since they may have higher expectations following their record-breaking GCSE results in 2021.
Ms. Keegan ascribed the decline to the grading system reverting to its pre-COVID state and stressed the significance of maintaining its “value” and “well respectability.”
According to today’s results, 27.2% of pupils received an A* or A, down from 36.4% last year, 44.7% in 2021, and 38.5% in 2020. When compared to pre-pandemic levels, when 25.4% of A-level entrants received an A or an A*, the percentage has increased by 1.8%.
The proportion of submissions graded A* to E, known as the overall pass rate, has decreased to 97.3% this year from 98.4% in 2022 and 97.6% in the year before the pandemic in 2019.
Later, Ms. Keegan defended her remarks and denied that they were inconsiderate to children who were concerned about their grades.
