Professors claim that diverging content and results necessitate a change to compare the exams accurately.
According to a professor, GCSEs should be branded to indicate whether they were awarded in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland, reflecting the growing differences between each country’s version of the exam.
With about 800,000 16-year-olds awaiting their GSCE results on Thursday, Prof Alan Smithers of Buckingham University said there could be substantial variations in results this national administration.
Smithers predicted that while the total grades may fall compared to last year, top grades in England may be similar to 2023, but those in Wales and Northern Ireland may be lower, following the pattern of last week’s A-level results.
Exam boards and administrators from the three nations work together to maintain broadly similar GSCEs, but differences in course content, assessment, and grading have pushed them in different directions.
In recent years, the coursework assessments have been eliminated or downgraded in England’s GCSEs, and the nation’s numerical scale is 9 as the highest grade and one as the lowest. Exams in Wales and Northern Ireland use letters grades A* to G, with Northern Ireland adding a C* grade.
National administrations are almost entirely responsible for education funding and policymaking. Scotland has its own qualifications system, and most students got their results earlier this month.
Smither stated that while national grades were approximately the same, educators and employers found it difficult to compare them appropriately. His approach is to rename or rebrand GSCEs with national identifications to prevent confusion.
Smithers stated, “If employers or sixth-form colleges are looking at GCSEs, they currently need to look very closely at the details to distinguish them from one another.” “Any change would be difficult but there should be individual branding, and at the very least it should give an indication of where the GCSEs were taken.”
In terms of this year’s results, Smithers predicts that up to 71,000 fewer top grades will be granted across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in all age categories, including resists, as regulators try to match pre-pandemic levels.
Predictions that grades in A-levels would decline proved incorrect last week, within the most significant proportion of A* grades awarded in England since they were introduced.
Ofqual stated that it used the 2023 A-levels as a benchmark for establishing the year’s grade boundaries. Ian Bauckham, the chief regulator, said that there is no grade inflation and that the improvement was “largely due to the ability of the cohort” to take this year’s tests.
Smithers stated, “I do think we will see fewer top [GCSE] grades in 2024 than 2023, but I am not sure how many because the Department for Education [in England] is currently giving the impression of wanting ‘feelgood’ results.”
Smithers also argues that England should remove the necessity for teenagers who fail GSCE English or Maths to continue retaking them while in school.
He said: “It must be soul-destroying to continually have to retake English or maths. Surely, there is an urgent need for a policy rethink.”
