Top grades fall a third quicker in North East than South East, analysis shows

The proportion of students receiving A or A* grades in their A-levels has fallen a third quicker in the North East of England than the South East, according to analysis by the Labour Party of the latest round of results.

Commenting as students across the country received their A-level results today, with the proportion of students achieving A* and A grades down 8.4 percentage points on 2021 awards, Labour’s Bridget Phillipson said that pupils have “worked incredibly hard through unprecedented circumstances”.

The Shadow Education Secretary added, however, that the “inequalities” shown by regional disparities in grades “reveal the Conservatives’ continued failure to enable all young people to thrive post-pandemic”.

The proportion of students achieving A* and A grades has fallen from 44.8% to approximately 36.4% since 2021, when grades were handed out through a process of teacher-assessed awards. Grade performance in 2022 is up slightly on 2019.

The percentage of people achieving A or A* grades in the North East stood at 39.2% in 2021. The region saw the largest fall with 30.8% receiving A or A* grades this year, a drop of 21.4%. In the South East of England, 16.1% fewer students received A or A* awards this year when compared with exams in 2021.

“Students in the North East are no less capable but after 12 years of Conservative governments they’re seeing their results go backwards compared to their peers across the South of England,” Phillipson said today.

The South East saw the smallest drop in attainment of top grades since 2021. 18.6% fewer students received A or A* A-levels in London than in 2021, while Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, the East Midlands, the West Midlands, the East of England and the South West saw the proportion fall by 21.2%, 16.9%, 24%, 21%, 19.4% and 19.5% respectively.

England’s exam regulator, Ofqual, has urged students not to compare their results with 2021 when grades were awarded based on teacher assessments due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, instead insisting that a comparison with 2019 when exams were last sat is more appropriate.

Compared with 2019 figures, the South of England has seen a greater increase in the number of students receiving top grades than the North. The North East saw the smallest increase, of 7.8 percentage points. All other regions except London and the South East saw top-grade attainment rise by between 9.2 and 10.9 points.

The proportion of people achieving A or A* A-level grades in London grew by the largest margin when compared with the 2019 exam results, by 12.1 percentage points. Top grade attainment in the South East was up 11.2 points.

According to the opposition party’s analysis, the difference in the number of A or A* grades being awarded to students at private compared to state schools has also widened since 2019, with the gap between the two groups of students now 13% larger than it was before the coronavirus pandemic.

Labour published its recovery plan for education in June last year, which set out measures for children from early years education through to secondary schools to address young people’s loss of learning during the pandemic and wellbeing.

“Labour set out an ambitious recovery plan, delivering small group tutoring, mental health support, free breakfast clubs and after-school activities for all. Our plans would enable young people to thrive, instead the Conservatives are once again failing our children,” the Shadow Education Secretary said today.