The Leader podcast: The GCSE exam results raise so many questions about Covid’s effect on education

The Evening Standard’s education editor, Anna Davis, is back on the show as the GCSE results are revealed.

They show another record year, with 28.9 per cent graded 7/A and above, compared with 26.2 per cent last year. In 2019, the last year exams were held, the figure was 20.8 per cent.

Leading the way is London, which has better results than anywhere else in the country… but why?

Also, as with A-Levels, girls have done much better than boys nationwide. Is it really, as one expert claims, because “girls are cleverer than boys” or has the disruption caused by the pandemic something to do with it.

In two years’ time, the current GCSE students will be taking their A-Levels but it’s expected to be the first time many of them will have ever sat a formal exam. How will that affect results in 2023?

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