Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have taken (a) archaeology and (b) classical civilisation at GCSE and A-level in each of the last 10 years.

There has been no GCSE qualification in archaeology since 2009.

In 2015/16, there were 340 entries to A level archaeology, of which 26 were from state-funded schools, 8 were from independent schools and 306 were from FE colleges.

Please see the tables below for the number of entries to A level archaeology from 2006/07 to 2015/16 and for GCSE from 2006/07 to 2008/09.

Source 2015/16 16-18 attainment data (provisional)

1. Covers examination results of students aged 16, 17 or 18 at the start of the academic year, i.e. 31 August.

2. Figures for 2016 are provisional; figures for all other years are final.

3. From 2016, for accountability purposes results are allocated to the provider where the student has enrolled to take their main programme of study, recorded in the school census or Individual Learner Record (ILR). The ILR has been used as additional data source from 2016, and this leads to very small differences in the student exam results included.

Source: KS4 attainment data

1. Covers pupils at the end of key stage 4

A levels and GCSEs in classical civilisation will continue to be offered by an exam board other than AQA.

The number of GCSE entries for classical civilisation is published in the GCSE and equivalent results statistical first release (SFR)[1].

The number of A level entries in classical civilisation is published in the A level and equivalent results statistical first releases (SFR)[2]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (subject time series tables)

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (table 2a and subject time series tables)