Black, Asian and minority ethnic pupils did better at top GCSE and A level grades in Wales than white British pupils last academic year, continuing a trend since 2015, new Welsh Government figures show. The gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their wealthier peers also widened, despite attempts to narrow it.
The report, covering the period September 2021 to August 2022, includes results for the first sat exams for three years after they were replaced with teacher assessed grades during the pandemic. GCSE and A level grades fell overall this summer, as the regulator reined back after two years of grade inflation when exams were cancelled, but the latest report reveals how pupils from various groups fared differently.
While Black, Asian and minority ethnic pupils did better at top grades overall than White British classmates, there was variation in communities with Chinese and Chinese British and Indian pupils doing best. More than a third of exams taken by Chinese, Chinese British and Indian ethnicity pupils were graded A*.
