GCSE results this year have revealed a widening attainment gap between pupils at selective schools and those from other state schools. In particular the gap affecting disadvantaged children was branded “unforgiveable” by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer. It followed the trend in A-levels this week when pupils at independent schools stretched ahead of their state school counterparts in achieving top grades. With about 600,000 pupils in England receiving GCSE results awarded by teacher assessment in place of formal exams, record numbers celebrated a string of high grades, as did many 16-year-olds in Wales and Northern Ireland. While the overall proportion of those gaining grades 4 and above – equivalent to a C – remained little changed compared with 2020, 30% of entries this year received grades 7 or above, equivalent to A and A*s. The growth in top grades was well below the rise in top grades awarded to A-level candidates this week. But the proportion of grades 7 and above were almost 40% higher than in 2019, the last time national exams went ahead. The increase in grades has particularly benefited state grammar schools, which select pupils based on academic ability; they awarded top grades to 68% of their entries. Secondary moderns – comprehensive schools in selective regions such as Kent – saw the attainment gap widen despite their own improved results, rising from 44 percentage points behind grammar schools in 2019 to 48 percentage points this year, in terms of top grades. Unlike with A-level results, grammar schools often outperform those in the independent sector in GCSEs because many private schools choose to take international or IGCSEs or similar qualifications rather than the exams regulated by government agencies. Among pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds those on free school meals this year received double the rate of top grades gained in 2019. But the gap between them and those not on free school meals increased from eight percentage points to 12. The attainment gap also widened, including grades 4 and above, reversing the gains enjoyed by disadvantaged pupils from teacher-assessed grades awarded in 2020. Starmer said such inequality in attainment was “unforgivable” and repeated his call for Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, to resign. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, insisted that formal exams would return next year. But Tom Richmond, a former Department for Education adviser who heads the EDSK thinktank, said: “The potential devaluation of GCSE grades also raises more questions about whether spending almost £200m a year getting hundreds of thousands of pupils to take up to 30 hours of GCSE exams at age 16 is still necessary, particularly when young people have to stay in education or training until aged 18.” But success stories included three pupils at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ high school, in Blackburn, who received grade 9s across all 13 subjects they had entered – among only 16 pupils in England who gained straight 9s in 12 or more courses. Girls outperformed boys in getting the highest proportion of top grades in maths for the first time but their overall lead across all subjects shrank, with 80% of entries by girls gaining grade 4 or above compared with 73% of boys. The number of girls taking science courses at GCSE increased this year in the subjects of physics, biology and chemistry, with girls making up more than half the number of entrants on the three science courses in year 11. Prof Ulrike Tillmann, of the Royal Society’s education committee, welcomed the increase in pupils taking separate science subjects but was concerned that the number of girls taking computing had continued to fall during the pandemic. “It is important to closely monitor how the pandemic has affected longstanding inequalities in attainment across regions, demographics and socio-economic groups. As we saw with A-level results, an attainment gap persists between pupils receiving free school meals and their counterparts, and this and any other variations should be a focus in the catch-up programme.” Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers union, said: “Young people and their teachers urgently need the detail of what measures are to be adopted for next year, along with what contingency plans will be in place in the event that exams cannot go ahead as planned, so that they have the best possible opportunity to plan, prepare and achieve their best.” In the compulsory subjects of maths and English there were small increases in pupils gaining grade 4 and above, with pass rates of 77.9% and 80.9% respectively, up by less than one percent each. Despite the modest increase the Education Policy Institute noted that an additional 85,000 entries in English and 71,000 entries in mathematics were awarded a grade 4 or above compared with 2019. In England, those who fail to reach a grade 4 have to retake maths and English while at school or college. There was good news for those succeeding in their second or third attempts; about 39% of students aged over 16 gained at least a grade 4 in maths, compared with 22% in 2019, while 43% got at least a grade 4 in English. In Wales, there was a dip in the proportion of pupils gaining C or above, to 73.6%, but the rate of entries gaining the top A* and A grades increased from 25.5% to 28.7%. The Welsh education minister, Jeremy Miles, told students: “You’ve had everything thrown at you over the last 18 months – periods in lockdown, time away from your friends and families, and times where you’ve missed out on many of the social activities you should be enjoying. You’ve shown tremendous resilience to overcome all of these challenges.” In Northern Ireland, the proportion of entries awarded As increased to a fraction under 40%, while the 89.6% of entries achieving C or above was slightly lower than in 2020. While pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland all take GCSEs, the devolution of education to each nation’s governments has meant the course content, grading and methods of assessment have diverged substantially, making any UK-wide comparisons difficult.