New data shows the number of pupils entering the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) has dropped for the first time in five years to 38.1 per cent. Latest figures show a 1.5 per cent decline on last year’s figures, when 39.6 per cent of pupils were entered

The EBacc launched in 2010 by Michael Gove the present education secretary at the time. Its aim was to reverse the “dumbing down” of GCSEs. To achieve the award students must obtain five A*-C or numeric 4-9 grades in Maths, English, Sciences, History and Geography, and a language.    

The number of students receiving the award has also declined by 2.4 per cent against last year resulting in only 21.1 per cent of students achieving the five grades required to pass. The Department for Education (DfE) said it was “disappointed” by the results, whilst a source within the department described them as a “shock”. In its analysis the DfE blamed the decline on a steep fall in the number of students taking modern foreign languages. However the schools minister Nick Gibbs insisted more pupils were taking core academic subjects. “Since 2010, the proportion of pupils taking GCSE science has risen from 63 per cent to 91 per cent, and 21 per cent more students are studying maths at A-level,” he said. He also pointed out the “outstanding” Progress 8 scores of converter academies and free schools, which came joint top of all school types.  

Calls to scrap Progress 8 and EBacc
Many Academics have blamed the trend on British children being raised at time when English is more prevalent internationally, whilst technology and television have made them more reliant on subtitles and Google Translate. Teachers and unions have called for Progress 8 and the EBacc to be scrapped in the wake of the results. Tom Sherrington, an education consultant and ex-head teacher, said schools were avoiding entering pupils for “high-risk” subjects such as modern foreign languages for fear of threatening their Progress 8 score. Progress 8 “overrides all the other measures”, he said.

The EBacc pass rate is almost a “soft measure, an aspirational measure” while the Progress 8 score is higher-stakes. The fact schools were choosing to enter pupils into fewer EBacc subjects demonstrate the “inherent paradox” within the government’s accountability measures, he added. He called for both Progress 8 and the EBacc to be scrapped, and for schools to be inspected on a “case-by-case” basis on their outcomes in all subjects and the depth and breadth of their curriculum. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the drop in entries “confirms the DfE must abandon the delusional expectation that 90 per cent of children will take it” by 2025.