Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of students who were due to sit GCSE exams in summer 2021, whose GCSE exams were also cancelled in the 2019-20 academic year.

The Department concluded a successful Autumn exam series, allowing pupils who didn’t receive a grade in the summer 2020, and pupils who received a grade but wanted the chance to improve their grade, the opportunity to sit exams. We understand, however, that some pupils may have decided to wait until the Summer 2021 series to re-take their exams. The department and Ofqual have launched a two-week consultation on how fairly to award all pupils, including private candidates and those not in school or college this year, a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives. The Department will continue to engage with a range of relevant stakeholders when developing plans for our policy on GCSE, AS and A level assessments in 2021, as will the exams regulator Ofqual.

While the Department is unable to collect data on the number of individuals retaking their GCSEs, Ofqual will receive full entry data in the early Summer, enabling us to gain a broader understanding of the number of students who are due to enter for GCSEs. These data are usually published by Ofqual in May or June.

Full Autumn entry data can be found here for AS and A level here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/entries-for-as-and-a-level-autumn-2020-exam-series. For GSCE here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/entries-for-gcse-autumn-2020-exam-series. For GCSE English and Maths here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/entries-for-gcse-november-2020-exam-series. A summary is provided below.