Almost 100,000 students leave education without necessary qualifications

18% of teens in England have left education without the necessary grades to enter apprenticeships and technical or academic courses, according to the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield. 98,799 of the students leaving education this year have not achieved five A*-C GCSEs or any equivalent. This amounts to a 24% rise since 2015. A higher proportion of disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs (SEN) left school without the necessary qualifications. 37% of students eligible for free school meals left school without these qualifications as well as 45% of pupils with special educational needs.

The Children’s Commissioner has written to the Department for Education asking them to commit to a five-year plan to halve the number of children failing to gain a Level 2 qualification by age 19. ‘The government must urgently investigate why the progress that has been made over recent years in closing the attainment gap has stalled and now going backwards,’ Ms Longfield added. The General Secretary of the NAHT teacher’s union, Paul Whiteman, says disadvantaged and SEN students are ‘victims of a decade of austerity’ and have ‘disproportionately suffered from funding cuts not just to education, but to all the wider services that should be there to help them.’ However, looking at the whole student population, the report the Children’s Commissioner is referring to suggests the increase is partially due to fewer schools offering vocational alternatives to GCSEs, reducing choice for students.

Nearly 100,000 children leave education without basic qualifications amid shameful rise, children’s commissioner says (The Independent) Longfield demands review as 1 in 5 leave school without good GCSEs (Schools Week) 'Shameful rise': 18% of children now leave school as low achievers (The Guardian) GCSEs: 100,000 pupils a year leaving 'without basic qualifications'(BBC)

Why should this matter to me? The central goal of any school is to ensure that their students leave with the grades they need to get a good start in life. When this is being achieved less and less every year, schools will be looking for ways to boost the grades of their students. Based on the speculated causes of these issues, tailored provision and resources for disadvantaged and SEN students may boost grade attainment – especially if they are affordable or even free. More accessible ways of providing vocational training must be in place for the students that need more choice to succeed.