A leading voice for business and civic leaders in the North East has called on the government to fix the North-South divide in education as GCSE results are revealed today, with a warning: "Our young people cannot go on paying the price for DfE failure".

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership and Schools North East has sent a letter to Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak calling for action.

Representing school leaders and educational innovators, the partnership has revealed its “deep concerns” about the divide and the “lasting impact this has on our economy.”

Last week young people across the country at schools and colleges received their A-level, BTEC and T-level results.

The results show that regional separation in attainment is “getting worse, not better,” the partnership argues.

This year the gap between the North East and South East – the highest performing region in 2019 and 2022 – at A-level has widened from 5.3 per cent to 8.7 per cent.

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The North East saw the smallest number of students achieving A* and A grades in the country with a total of 30.8 per cent achieving those grades.

In the South East, 39.5 per cent of students received the same results.

“Children here are just as bright, just as talented and have just as much to offer – so what is going wrong and what can we do to fix it?” The letter asks.

Northern Powerhouse Partnership continue to argue that the “deep-seated disadvantage” for North East children was only made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research from FFT Education Datalab found that pupils in the North East missed 15.3 per cent of lessons during the pandemic, compared with 11.6 per cent of lessons missed in London and 11.9 per cent in the South East.

Henri Murison, chief executive of The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, stressed that North East young people “cannot go on paying the price for DfE failure.”

He added: “Once again, we’re seeing evidence of gaping regional disparities in today’s GCSE results, particularly between the North and London in Grade 7 and above results.  

“Sadly, this is not all that surprising when we consider the triple whammy of factors that will have had an impact on this attainment gap - existing long-term disadvantage, learning loss during COVID and DfE failures in catch up and the National Tutoring Programme - all of which affect the North of England disproportionately.

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“As they will consider study in the future, the most competitive routes such as future university entry or degree and wider apprenticeships have young people competing from across the UK.”

Top grades for GCSEs are down on last year – but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, as UK students received their results on today.

In 2021, the proportion of GCSE entries awarded top grades surged to an all-time high after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid-19 and pupils were given results determined by their teachers.

Similar to the pattern with A-level results, published last week, it had been expected that grades would drop below last year, but remain above those from 2019 as students returned to sitting exams for the first time in three years.

Figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) – covering GCSE entries from students predominantly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – showed top grades of 7/A have fallen from 28.9 per cent in 2021 to 26.3 per cent this year, a drop of 2.6 percentage points.

But this remains higher than the equivalent figure for 2019 of 20.8 per cent.

The proportion of entries receiving a 4/C – considered a pass – dropped from 77.1 per cent in 2021 to 73.2 per cent this year, a fall of 3.9 percentage points, but higher than 67.3 per cent in 2019.

The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 98.4%, down from 99.0 per cent in 2021 but slightly above 98.3 per cent in 2019.

Girls continued their lead over boys this year, with 30.0% of entries achieving a 7/A, compared with 22.6 per cent for males.

The gap has closed slightly from last year, when 33.4 per cent of female entries were awarded 7/A or above compared with 24.4% for males, a lead of 9.0 percentage points.

The top 10 subjects at GCSE, which sees pupils having to take a number of compulsory subjects as well as some optional choices, remained the same this year.

Business studies, which is optional, saw the biggest percentage rise in entries of any major subject, jumping by 4.6% from 102,542 to 107,283.

While Spanish remains the second-most popular modern foreign language after French, its entries have fallen by 1.7% for the first time since 2018.

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