Congratulations, kids! Over the last couple of weeks, there hasn’t been much to celebrate, so it was nice to read headlines about an excellent tranche of A-level results. Across the UK, grades rose for the first time since 2021, with 27.8% of them marked at A* or A.
New figures suggest that 376,470 applicants were accepted into their ‘firm’ choice university – a 4% increase on last year. Not only is this great news for the students, but universities will be breathing a sigh of relief too. It was recently reported that a number of universities are in financial dire straits, with many being forced to sack professors and cut courses. The unions were demanding bailouts to prop these failing colleges up, so hopefully this year’s bumper crop of students (and their cash) gives ministers pause before dipping into their pockets.
Of course, there’s always the temptation to worry that this is less about genuine achievement, and more about grade inflation. But it’s not the only sign that England’s schools are in a pretty good state. Last year’s PISA rankings showed that English students outperformed the international average for maths by some way. England also placed 13th globally for reading and science, having previously ranked 25th and and 16th respectively in 2009.
The problem is that other parts of the UK aren’t following suit. The same PISA results showed that Wales’ performance has got significantly worse. Having dropped 21 points for maths, 18 for reading and 15 for science, its results were well below the international average. And Scottish education isn’t in a great way either. Since the previous set of PISA scores, performance in maths has declined by the equivalent of a year of schooling, meaning that a 15-year-old now is doing no better than a 14-year-old was in 2018. Sadly, this trend is nothing new. According to some studies, Scottish schooling has been in decline since at least 2012.
It’s not just on academic standards where many schools are falling. Anti-social behaviour has also become rife. In the four weeks before the PISA test, 47.5% of 15-year-olds in Wales reported seeing a fight at school in which someone had been hurt. More shockingly, 5.4% said they saw another student carrying a knife or a gun on school premises.
It is baffling, given the successes in England, that Scotland and Wales are failing to copy their neighbour’s homework. And even more perplexing is that the Government appears to understand absolutely nothing about the drivers of this trend.
Rather than encourage more schools to adopt the rigour and discipline that has produced such good results in places like the Michaela Community School, Labour have gone full class war. From January 2025, they will impose a 20% VAT charge on private school fees. The consequences of this could be dire.
Some private schools are already closing in response to the policy. Just this week, two in Scotland closed, with both citing fears over Labour’s tax raid as contributory factors. The victims of this measure will not exclusively be Little Lord Fauntleroys either: many of those affected will be hard-working parents who scrimp and save to get their children into some of the best schools in the world.
Most critically, the exodus of children from the private sector will invariably clog up the state sector. In areas such as Surrey, Westminster, Rutland and Richmond, this could take up more than 40% of available places in state schools. With many schools nearing overflowing as it is, this is the last thing they need.
British kids took a battering during Covid, having to spend two of their formative years locked indoors away from their friends and, most importantly, their classrooms. This week’s A-Level results show that, despite the odds, many students – at least in England – are starting to overcome the barriers put up for them during that time. They deserve better than a misguided policy which threatens to make their learning even more difficult.
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