Today, 12th August 2021, hundreds of thousands of students have collected their GCSE and vocational and technical qualification results.
Recognising the disruption that the pandemic has caused to education, The Government and Ofqual decided that grades would this year be determined by teachers rather than examining bodies.
Students were able to be assessed on a range of evidence, including in-class tests, mock papers, optional questions provided by exam boards and coursework.
According to the Department for Education, all grades have been checked by schools – and one in five schools having a sample of their grades checked by exam boards.
While generally, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects have seen great results this year, concerns are on the rise as figures show girls’ interest is declining in computing.
According to the latest data, the number of young women taking Computing at GCSE has dropped for the second consecutive year from 21.65% in 2020 to 20.7% this year.
Despite this, computing saw a 1.92% increase in the number of students pursuing the discipline overall.
According to tes, Art, design and technology have taken a hit in recent years, with these subjects accounting for 8.5% of entries in 2011 and 5.3% in 2021.
Arts subjects also experienced a decline in their overall pass rates this year but have seen a boost in top grades.
For more information on this year’s GCSE results, see here.