North East A-Level results fall behind

10.08.21

There were more worrying signs of a growing North-South divide in education today, as A-Level students across the country received their results.

The North East saw a fall of -0.4% in the proportion of students achieving a Grade C or above – while no other region saw any fall in this category. 

The North East also saw the smallest increase in the proportion of students achieving a grade A.

Frank Norris, special adviser on education and schools to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “Today’s results have confirmed our fears that the pandemic has had a highly disproportionate impact across the Northern regions.

“All of this suggests there is real urgency in agreeing and acting upon an education recovery plan that supports students in the future. This cannot wait any longer.”

Our research earlier this year found that 10.1 per cent of secondary school pupils in North East were from long-term disadvantaged high impact groups – double the national average and the highest proportion in the country.

Sarah Mulholland, Head of Policy at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said “Pupils in the North East have had to deal with a triple-whammy of challenges to their learning over the past 18 months.

“Long-term disadvantage was already a huge problem in schools here before the pandemic, and the disproportionate disruption to learning of education coupled with the lack of access to remote learning has exacerbated the existing education divide.”

Photograph: Justin Tallis/PA Photograph: Justin Tallis/PA