Around 175,000 young people fail their maths GCSE every year (Gareth Fuller/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Teenagers who fail their maths GCSE are “doomed to a cycle of resits” that has seen some taking the exam eight times, education experts have warned.
Pupils are becoming alienated and stuck in a vicious circle of retakes which they are statistically less likely to pass each time, teaching leaders told MPs.
Around 175,000 young people fail their maths GCSE every year which has a significant impact on their confidence, Sam Sims, chief executive of National Numeracy, told the Education Select Committee.
Under current rules, pupils who fail to get a grade 4 in maths or English GCSE must retake the exam until they leave school, but few pass on second or subsequent attempts. This is leaving teenagers disengaged and alienated.
Mr Sims said a “staggeringly low” proportion of pupils pass their maths exams the second time and the chance of teenagers passing reduces every time they retake it. In 2022 the resit pass rate was 20 per cent. He added: “I speak to adults who have taken their GCSE seven, eight times and have stuck with it and I hugely applaud them for doing that…but for many, many people that really does put them off.”
Niamh Sweeney, deputy general secretary of the National Education Union said she has worked with young people who failed their GCSEs six or seven times. She said: “Each year you do it, it becomes a little bit more difficult because you are taking it with Year 11s…and you are doing it one hour a week and are trying to concentrate on your post-16 studies and you are being alienated because you have failed it four times already. It does become a vicious cycle.”
Sir Martin Taylor, chair of the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on Mathematical Education, told MPs that pupils who fail to pass their GCSE are “doomed to this cycle of redoing resits again and again with only about one in four ever getting there”.
It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wants all teenagers to study maths until they are 18. The panel of education specialists said the “unfortunate announcement” was made without consultation and warned there has been no update since Mr Sunak unveiled the policy last month.
The teaching specialists were broadly supportive of Mr Sunak’s aim, but said it would be challenging to implement, especially with the current lack of maths teachers.
The Liberal Democrats have accused Mr Sunak of not knowing how many new teachers would be needed to make the policy a reality.
In a written question, Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson asked for an estimate of how many maths teachers would be needed to fulfil Mr Sunak’s plans.
In an answer, Schools Minister Nick Gibb listed the existing bursaries provided to trainee teachers.
Ms Wilson told the Standard: “The Prime Minister’s sums simply don’t add up. We already don’t have enough maths teachers and the Conservatives’ bungling of the teachers’ pay dispute will make recruitment and retention even harder.”
She added: “This is a half-baked policy because the Government hasn’t done its homework. Ministers can’t answer basic questions about how many extra maths teachers they’ll need.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said the proposals would be set out “in due course”.
