It could have been worse, as some parents will doubtless be whispering even now through a furiously slammed teenage bedroom door. GCSE grades were always going to have to come down, eventually, from the artificially inflated high of the pandemic years; and when they did, it was never going to be fair. How could it be? So there will have been tears for some, on ripping open the envelope, with only 22.4% of entries in England this year getting grades 7 to 9 – an A or A* in old money – down from a peak of 30% in 2021, when exams were scrapped and teachers had to guesstimate grades.
Worst hit of all are those who would probably have managed the required grade 4 in English and maths, if they had sat the exams last year – but not this, and now having to face demoralising resits and worries about finding a job. That Wales and Northern Ireland chose to keep marking more generously for another year only adds salt to the wound elsewhere.
