Boris Johnson's ex catch-up chief savages Tories for North-South GCSE divide

27 August 2023 , 11:00

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This week's GCSE results exposed a stark divide in top grades between the North and South of England (Image: Getty Images)

Boris Johnson's former catch-up chief has blamed failures to help children recover from Covid disruption for the stark North-South divide in GCSE results.

Sir Kevan Collins, who quit his role in 2021 over the Government's miserly catch-up plans, said ministers had "made a huge mistake" by failing to invest in helping kids recover from the havoc wrought on their education by the pandemic. GCSE results published this week exposed a gulf between the numbers of pupils in the North East attaining top grades compared to their peers in London.

Sir Kevan dramatically resigned after his calls for a £14billion catch-up package were denied. Instead, the Government pledged just £1.4billion - a tenth of what he'd asked for. He told the Observer: "I take no comfort in the idea of ‘I told you so.’ It feels very sad. This was the biggest disruption in education since the Second World War and there was no moment of saying, 'Right, we are going to grab this and address it.'"

Former catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins quit in protest at the Government's Covid recovery plans (PA)

He said the Government had “let children down”. Kids without proper support from school or their families "have been really badly hit in ways that I could not have imagined then", he said.

Some 22% of GCSE entries were awarded 7/A or above this year compared to 26.3% last year, after efforts to return grading to pre-pandemic levels. Results remained higher than in 2019 (20.8%) - before lockdowns forced children out of the classroom for months at a time.

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Only 17.6% of teenagers in the North East received top grades compared to 28.4% in London - a 10.8 percentage point gap. The gap between the North East and the capital was 10.2 percentage points last year - and it has increased every year since 2017.

In Yorkshire and Humber 18.3% of pupils got top marks, rising to 18.4% in the West Midlands and 18.5% in the East Midlands. In the South East it was 24.4%.

Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the results showed promises to level up education are "dead and buried", while campaigners urged the Government to address deprivation and inequalities across the country that are harming children's life chances.

The Department for Education said: “Millions of students are receiving extra support to catch up including through tutoring, and backed by £5bn.”

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Lizzy Buchan