School leaders have warned the “disproportionate impact” of Covid on northern pupils was not effectively taken into account in this year’s A-level results, after it emerged that regional divides had widened.
London saw the biggest increase in top grades between 2019 and 2021. The proportion of A* to A grades jumped by 12.1 percentage points, from 26.9 to 39 per cent.
At the same time the north east saw the lowest rise, 7.8 percentage points, in top grades, from 23 to 30.8 per cent. Across England, 35.9 per cent of grades awarded this year were at A or A*.
Schools North East, an organisation representing headteachers in the region, congratulated students for their results, but warned national data highlighted the unequal legacy of Covid across the country.
This year, pupils were given extra support such as advance information while taking exams for the first time since 2019.
Exam boards were also ordered to make sure grades sat somewhere between 2019 and 2021 results.
But “despite the adaptions” and catch-up support from government, Schools North East said it was “clear that the disproportionate impact of the pandemic in regions like the North East has not been effectively taken into account.”
“This year’s results can be seen as a ‘map’ of the impact of the pandemic on students and schools.”
Northern schools hit harder by Covid
Research from FFT Education Datalab published earlier this year showed that pupils in the region missed 15.3 per cent of lessons in the 2020-21 academic year and the autumn term of 2021-22 due to Covid.
In comparison, pupils in London lost 11.6 per cent of lessons and pupils in the south east lost 11.9 per cent.
Government data covering the entirety of the pandemic up to August 16 also shows the north east has the largest cumulative case rate of any region, at 37,193 cases per 100,000 people.
The north west has the second largest overall case rate, at 36,819, while London has the second lowest, at 33,840.
But regional disparities are not new to this year, with the north east, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber respectively receiving the three lowest proportions of top grades in 2021.
London, the south east and the east of England – in that order – received the three highest proportions of top grades in the same year.
Labour criticised the government’s apparent failure to close the north-south gap and its approach to post-pandemic catch-up.
Recent research from the Sutton Trust showed that fewer than one in five 16 to 19-year olds had been offered some form of tutoring under the government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Students receiving their results have worked incredibly hard through unprecedented circumstances, but these inequalities reveal the Conservatives’ continued failure to enable all young people to thrive post-pandemic.
“Students in the North East are no less capable but after 12 years of Conservative governments they’re seeing their results go backwards compared to their peers across the south of England.”
Regional divides are deepening
While the north east fared worst in terms of the increase in top grades since 2019, other northern regions fell short this year too, and more local breakdown shows counties in the south were among the worst-performing.
Yorkshire and the Humber saw the second lowest percentage point change, at 9.2 per cent, while the south east saw the second largest – 11.2.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The impact of deep-seated disadvantage on education has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as more recent failures in the government’s education recovery initiative, such as the poor delivery of the National Tutoring Programme.
“We also know that young people in the north of England were disproportionately affected by the digital divide, and the snail’s pace of the DfE’s laptop scheme meant many children were unable to learn at home effectively.”
A more local breakdown of results by Ofqual, based on old ceremonial counties, shows south-eastern areas outperformed large parts of the rest of the country, although there are outliers.
The area with the highest percentage of top grades was Rutland in the East Midlands, at 53.6 per cent. However, this data is difficult to compare with other counties because it is small and has few schools.
Across the rest of England, Surrey received the highest proportion of A and A*s across all subjects, at 44.5 per cent, followed by Buckinghamshire at 44.2 per cent, Oxfordshire at 42.7 per cent and Hertfordshire at 42.3 per cent.
Greater London received the ninth highest proportion of top grades, at 39.4 per cent.
The Isle of Wight, which also has a comparatively small population, received the lowest proportion of top grades, at just 24.3 per cent. This was followed by Bedfordshire at 27.4 per cent, Suffolk at 28.2 per cent, Staffordshire at 28.4 per cent and Leicestershire at 9 per cent.
Geoff Barton, from the ASCL school leaders’ union, warned this week it was “likely that results at the level of schools, colleges, and students will be uneven because of the highly variable impact of the pandemic with those affected more by infections potentially faring less well than others”.
“Adaptations were made to exams to try to mitigate this impact in as far as that is possible but this is not a normal year by any measure and it is important that we focus on supporting the progression of students rather than fixating too much on grades.”
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