Page 22 Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019
SO MUCH FOR THE
today’s pupils are not ‘disadvan-
taged’ compared to earlier ones.
The high results brought a storm
of criticism from campaigners.
Chris McGovern of the Campaign
for Real Education said: ‘This
devaluation of the examination cur-
rency is a national scandal. By
manipulating grade boundaries the
boards are undermining confidence
in GCSE and making a nonsense of
the claim that these are “world
class” exams.
‘The questions may be a bit harder
but the pass marks are lower than
before the reforms. Few people will
be fooled.’
Alan Smithers, professor of edu-
cation at Buckingham University
added: ‘Some allowance can be jus-
tified for the first to take the exams,
but from now on the grades must
reflect the marks. Otherwise pupils
and schools receive misleading
information about how good they
are. The reforms will only have been
worth it, if they do raise standards
and the exam grades are credible.’
However, teaching leaders say the
improvement shows that schools
and pupils are working harder. Paul
Whiteman of school leaders’ union
the NAHT, said: ‘This tells us that
students and staff are coping with
the dramatic changes.’
Education Secretary Gavin Wil-TOP GCSE grades have risen for the
second year running to hit a four-year
high, despite reforms to toughen up
exams and tackle ‘dumbing down’.
More than one in five of all entries got at
least a grade 7 (equivalent to the old A),
the largest proportion since 2015.
The proportion scoring a maximum grade 9
also rose for a second time to almost one in 20,
with more than 800 pupils getting a clean
sweep of all 9s. The rise comes in an exam year
billed as the toughest-ever because it is the
first in which almost all the ‘difficult’ new
GCSEs have been sat.
Coursework has now been mostly abolished,
content is more challenging, and the 9-1 grad-
ing is designed to make it tougher to score thetop grade. The reforms were pioneered by
former education secretary Michael Gove after
years of grade inflation under Labour and
claims that the qualifications were worthless.
But exam boards were also ordered to set
their grade boundaries low to make sureBy Eleanor Harding, Sarah Harris
and Elliot Mulligan
Over 20% of all entries get at
least grade 7 – an old-style A
‘The pass marks
are lower now’A MIRACLE teenager who was
Britain’s smallest baby is cele-
brating her GCSE results.
Aaliyah Hart, 16, weighed 12oz
(340g) when she was born three
months prematurely at Birming-
ham’s City Hospital in May 2003.
Doctors predicted a one per
cent chance of survival but Aali-
yah went on to defy the odds.
She got grade 3s in performing
arts, English literature and Eng-
lish language, 2s in religious edu-
cation and food preparation and
a grade 1 in science.Success for
girl who was
tiniest baby
Off to college: Aaliyah HartTrue grit of
cancer girl
A SCHOOLGIRL who complained
of feeling tired was taken out of
her GCSE exam before being told
she had cancer.
Hannah Fraser, 17, of Formby,
Merseyside, had been about to sit
a paper at Range High School last
May but was told her she had to go
straight to hospital and was diag-
nosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
But despite undergoing chemo-
therapy, Hannah, who is now in
remission, did her exams at home
and achieved grade 5s in English
literature and PE, 4s in English
language, maths and combined
science and a 3 in media studies.Determined: Hannah Fraserliamson said: ‘Today’s results show
pupils are going on to further study
and the world of work with the best
possible foundations, focusing on
the academic cornerstones of
education while also stretching
themselves creatively.’
The first reformed exams were sat
in 2017 and this year all were in the
new format except for four ‘niche’
language subjects.
Exam boards said yesterday that
20.8 per cent of pupils got a grade 7 or
above, up from 20.5 per cent in 2018.
And 67.3 per cent scored a 4 or above,
up from 66.9 per cent. (Grade 4 is the
equivalent of the old grade C.)
The proportion of 9 grades rose to
4.5 per cent from 4.3 per cent and
the number who got all 9s (both 8
and 9 cover the old A*) rose to 837
from 732, partly because more sub-
jects came under the 9-1 system.
Of pupils who got a clean sweep,
66.4 per cent were girls and just 33.6
per cent boys. A total of 10 students
scored grade 9 in 12 GCSEs.
The proportion of 9 grades was
small in most subjects but in Clas-
sics, which includes Latin, it was
27.7 per cent, and in other modern
languages, which include Russian
and Chinese, it was 32.2 per cent.
It is thought these subjects are
mostly taught by high-achieving
private schools.
O A total of 263 of this year’s GCSE
candidates registered as ‘gender
neutral’ (neither male nor female)
after being given the option for the
first time.