iGCSE results data will not be published this year as it is fully removed from league tables and students are pushed back towards regular GCSE courses.
Pupils are receiving their iGCSE results today, but the exam board has informed Schools Week that it will not be putting out pass rates or statistics for the course this year.
“As expected, entries from state schools have fallen substantially as a result of the government’s decision to exclude iGCSEs from UK performance tables,” said a spokesperson for Cambridge International Examinations, the board solely responsible for the exams.
“Consequently this cohort is significantly smaller than last year and therefore the data is no longer comparable.
“In the UK independent sector, where schools have the freedom to choose, Cambridge iGCSE entries have remained stable.”
She was able to tell Schools Week that the total number of iGCSE entries for this year was around 110,000, compared to just over 300,000 entries last year.
On June 15, Schools Week reported that entries to both English language and literature had risen by around 50 per cent, according to Ofqual’s figures on the number of entries into summer GCSE and A-level exams this year.
Ofqual said the rise was driven in large part by the removal of iGCSEs from league tables, which has pushed more schools back to the GCSEs.
According to Ofqual’s summer 2017 GCSE and A-level entry figures, the number of entries into English language GCSEs rose from 459,750 in 2016, to 701,000 this year – a rise of 52 per cent.
Meanwhile entries into English literature also rocketed, up from 371,700 in 2016, to 551,050 this year, a rise of 48 per cent.
The overall entry into GCSEs rose by three per cent this year.
In August 2016, Schools Week reported that the pass rate for iGCSEs in English language had risen, with more than 210,000 pupils sitting the exams in the final year before the regulated Cambridge iGCSEs will be removed from league tables.
The results released by CIE at the time showed 64.6 per cent of pupils achieved at least a grade C, up from 63.2 per cent in 2015.
The proportion of pupils achieving A* and A grades increased from 12.4 per cent to 13.6 per cent and, according to CIE, one in three pupils who sat an English language exam took its iGCSE.
Schools Week also reported in May 2016 that the number of pupils taking iGCSE had risen by 8 per cent, up from 457,000 to 493,000.
Your thoughts