Analysis Ingrained inequality deepens post-Covid

As the tide of exam results affected by Covid recedes, it reveals stark social and regional inequalities in GCSE performances across England that are barely changed or worse than before the pandemic struck.

- Richard Adams, Alex Clark

Those receiving their GCSE results this week were in their first year of secondary school when the pandemic began in early 2020, with that year and the next hugely disrupted as a result.

Ofqual and the Department for Education have reset their clocks to pre-pandemic grades, but the echoes remain among the results achieved by those from disadvantaged families, and especially those pupils who were unable to gain the grade 4 minimum in English and maths and must now resit those subjects while they remain in education for the next two years.

London continues to outperform the rest of the country, and the north-east still has the lowest level of top grades, though there was a minimal closing of the gap between the two. More worrying, all regions recorded a fall in the rates getting grade 4 or above. The West Midlands, which had the lowest rate in 2023, has fallen the most.