The proportion of GCSE students sitting three or more non-English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects has halved since 2015, according to analysis.
The number fell from 69 per cent of the cohort in 2015 to 34 per cent in 2024, FTT Education Datalab research shows.
FFT today published a blog analysing patterns of exam subject take-up following the introduction of the EBacc as a GCSE performance measure by the previous government.
This analysis comes after the interim report of the government’s review of curriculum and assessment this week warned that its call for evidence had highlighted that the EBacc “may unnecessarily constrain the choice of students” and limit access and time for arts subjects.
The EBacc was created to incentivise schools to ensure that students took traditionally academic subjects at GCSE. It comprises English, maths and science - which are compulsory - a modern foreign language and a humanity in either history or geography.
The end of the EBacc?
The interim report said the review would now assess the role of the EBacc within the accountability framework as part of the next phase of its work before making final recommendations later this year.
Today’s FFT post by its chief statistician, Dave Thomson, questions whether this means that “perhaps we are now at the beginning of the end of the EBacc era”.
The previous government had set a target for 75 per cent of Year 10 students in state-funded mainstream schools to start to study GCSEs in the EBacc combination of subjects by September 2022 (going on take their exams in 2024). This proportion was to increase to 90 per cent in 2025 (with these students taking exams in 2027).
The latest figures show EBacc take-up well short of this target, at 40.4 per cent of students in the most recent GCSE cohort in 2023-24.
The FFT analysis looked at end-of-key stage 4 data from 2015 to 2024 for state-funded mainstream and special schools to identify patterns during the “EBacc era”.
It says that the average number of entries for GCSEs and vocational and technical qualifications per student fell from 9.5 in 2016 to 8.6 in 2024. The analysis also notes that since 2015 the average number of entries in non-EBacc subjects has been gradually falling, from 3.2 in 2015 to 2.1 in 2024.
As a result, the percentages of students entered for seven or more subjects other than English and maths has been falling since 2017. The FFT also finds that the percentage of students entered for three or more non-EBacc subjects has halved, from 69 per cent in 2015 to 34 per cent in 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of schools in which no students were entered for three or more non-EBacc subjects has increased from 13 in 2015 to 235 in 2024. This is based on a total of between 3,000 and 3,200 schools per year.
‘New era of school accountability’
Mr Thomson’s post also notes that two of the key performance measures for schools - Progress 8 and Attainment 8 - incentivise schools to enter students in GCSEs for EBacc subjects.
He says: “It is no surprise, therefore, that schools respond to these incentives and so we see much greater take-up...in EBacc subjects than in other subjects.”
His post concludes: “Since 2017 we have seen a gradual reduction in the number of non-EBacc subjects taken by pupils. Whether this is due to the GCSE reforms, funding constraints or a bit of a both, I do not know.
“We are (probably) about to enter a new era of school accountability following the interim curriculum review. The incentives for schools are therefore likely to change. Consequently, we are likely to see shifts in the entry patterns described here.”
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