Reforming compulsory resits for English and maths GCSEs is crucial to tackling the Neets crisis and opening doors for young people, education leaders have said.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their GCSE grades and technical awards on Thursday to help them progress on to sixth form, college or training – with students able to view their results in an app following a successful trial last year.
The proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades rose on last year but the rate scoring a decent pass returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications.
The gap in results between boys and girls shrunk again to its narrowest point this century while the gap in top grades between London – the best-performing region – and the North East – the worst-performing – widened to the largest since current records began.
Concerns have flooded in about the Government’s policy of making students resit maths and English GCSEs.
In England, pupils who do not secure at least a grade 4 in English and/or maths GCSE are typically required to retake the subjects during post-16 education.
Press Association analysis of figures by Ofqual, England’s exam regulator, suggests more than 350,000 current 16-year-olds will need to take resits next year.
The analysis indicates 178,270 16-year-olds in England did not achieve a grade 4 or above in maths this year, 2,720 more than in 2025.
In English language, it is likely that 180,570 did not achieve a grade 4 or above, 2,900 fewer than last year.
More students aged 17 and above took English and maths this year – likely driven by these compulsory resits – but results have worsened.
The proportion of post-16 UK entries for English rose by 6.5% on last year, but the rate of scoring a decent pass decreased by 1.4 percentage points.
For maths, the proportion of entries increased by 5.8% but the rate of achieving a 4 was down 1.7 percentage points on 2025.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Government will bring in a “new stepping stone qualification” for young people to end the cycle of demoralising resits.
Sir Ian Bauckham, head of Ofqual, told the Press Association: “Structuring the teaching better using a qualification like that is basically a good idea, and I think it will be helpful and it could help more people reach that grade 4.
“If we can get more people to gain good qualifications, and we’re talking here particularly about that grade 4 threshold that is so widely recognised, then there will be more opportunities for the young people that have those qualifications.
“That will open more doors to them when they go out into the workplace.”
The latest data, published in May, showed the number of 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neet) surpassed one million for the first time since 2013, reaching 1.01 million in the three months from January to March.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This year’s post-16 resit results reinforce the fact that the Government policy of then force-feeding them a relentless diet of GCSE English and maths in post-16 education is simply not working.
“Tinkering at the edges of the qualification system will not solve this problem. As long as we continue to grade students in this way in these gateway subjects of English and maths we will continue to damage their future prospects.
“If the Government is serious about tackling the Neet crisis it must grasp this nettle and rethink how we assess English and maths.”
Carl Cullinane, from the Sutton Trust, called it “very concerning” that so many pupils are struggling to achieve passes in those subjects.
“These core subjects are crucial to unlocking good education, training and work opportunities, so any new stepping stone qualifications need to help build young people’s confidence and competence in these subjects,” he said.
“Improvement is urgent and essential in tackling the Neets crisis among young people.”
New preparatory qualifications will be introduced to help students before they take the resits, according to the Department for Education.
More than a fifth (22.0%) of UK entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade – this year, up by 0.1 percentage points on last year, when 21.9% achieved the top grades.
This was higher than in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, when 20.8% of entries achieved the top grades.
The proportion of entries getting at least a 4 or a C grade – considered a “standard pass” – has fallen from 67.4% in 2025 to 67.3% this year – a drop of 0.1 percentage points, and the same as in 2019.
Many of the pupils who are receiving their GCSE results this summer were in Year 5 when schools closed because of Covid-19, meaning their secondary education was not disrupted by the height of the pandemic.
While traditional A*-G grades are used in Northern Ireland and Wales, in England these have been replaced with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest.
A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.
Overall entries for GCSEs have risen slightly – up 0.6% on 2025 – after dropping last year.
The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9%, which is the same as 2025 but is down on 98.3% in 2019.
