Boys catching up with girls in GCSE exam results: This really is something to celebrate

The good thing about the cut in the gender gap is that it has been achieved by boys improving their performance - rather than girls doing worse

Emily Mott, 16, (second from left) receives her GCSE results at Royton and Crompton High School, Oldham. (Asadour Guzelian)

If boys were as good at jumping for joy as girls, they would have been pictured doing so yesterday to illustrate newspapers’ GCSE stories.

For one of the spin-offs from former Education Secretary Michael Gove’s exam reforms has been a rise in the performance of boys - said to be due to their ability to shine in end-of-term exams rather than methodically ratchet up marks for their grades through coursework during the year.

The good thing about the cut in the gender gap is that it has been achieved by boys improving their performance - rather than girls doing worse. Girls have done exactly the same as they did last year.

There are pros and cons in the coursework versus end-of-term exam debate. One argument is that it is easier to cheat through coursework by getting help to compile your answers. Against that, why shouldn’t solid work done during the year be allowed to count towards your overall grade?

Emily Mott, 16, (second from left) receives her GCSE results at Royton and Crompton High School, Oldham. (Asadour Guzelian)

In the end, though, this year’s results have produced something to celebrate - a real improvement in boys’ achievement.

What they haven’t done, though, is produce a sustained improvement in the take-up of modern foreign languages. This year the number of candidates in French and German has fallen back to near the levels prior to the introduction of the Government’s English Baccalaureate - which was supposed to encourage their take-up.

According to Brian Lightman, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, this could be because heads spotted their new recruits to languages weren’t able to achieve good grades - and so therefore might be better occupied pursuing a different subject, such as computing which has seen a 111.1 per cent rise this year.

It might be an explanation but it is terribly depressing for the future of this country.