Record numbers of GCSE results were resits - are we in a 'resit crisis'?

We know there is an issue - the data makes this clear. But the question is, why is this happening?

One suggestion is that the GCSE Maths and English curricula are expecting too much from pupils.

In her Radio 4 interview, Ms Duffy said that "on maths specifically, we think the current GCSE is far too big and it includes knowledge that isn't required".

"For example, you have to memorise the exact values of trigonometry - and that's something we're not even asking A-level students to do," she said.

For high-achieving pupils in England, Maths is a success story. The country performs well in international league tables for the subject, and more pupils than before are going on to study Maths at A-level.

But Ms Duffy adds: "We also have to expect that at the other end there's more work that we need to do. It can't be that we have a third of students who aren't getting the basic maths skills that they need at 16."

Catherine Sezen echoed this, and suggested some pupils are on a path to GCSE failure from as early as primary school.

"If you look at those students who are low achievers at the end of Key Stage 2 [aged 11], about 20% of those students [go on to] achieve a grade 4 at GCSE at 16," she said. "So, this is really quite embedded - it goes right back to reception and to nursery.

"The government's target is that 75% of children are ready for school at four or five. What about the other 25%?

"I suppose I think what you're seeing there is that there are some children who never catch up."

Ms Sezen added that in general, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds do worse in these exams - and for this cohort in particular, the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 could be playing a part, too.

"The year 11s this year would have been in that primary-secondary changeover phase during the pandemic," she said.

"What Covid did was exacerbate disadvantage… if you didn't have a laptop, if you didn't have a tablet, if you had parents who were trying to juggle two or three children and perhaps also trying to work from home."

So, what's the solution?

In a statement released by OCR, Ms Duffy called for "fundamental reform to Maths and English secondary education - especially at Key Stage 3".

Ms Sezen believes it could be time to introduce an alternative to the GCSE more tailored towards lower-achieving pupils, which would "ensure success for more young people at 16, for those young people who are not quite ready to reach that threshold.

"We have to understand that there are some young people who will never reach that threshold… You need to have appropriate qualifications for the people you've got sitting in front of you to make sure that they can look at doing basic skills well. And you can continue to build those skills from 16 to 18 if you need to."

She added that the exam system should allow pupils to build up credits, rather than the current all-or-nothing approach.

"I also think we need to look at what countries are doing across the world," she added. "We need to build on evidence and research of what works, because quite clearly what we've got at the moment doesn't."

Additional reporting by Hazel Shearing and Christopher Steers