Figures compiled by the Department for Education show that the proportion of pupils taking core academic subjects has increased since the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.
The EBacc was introduced by the DfE as an additional measure in the performance tables published in January 2011. Pupils who achieve a GCSE grade C or better in English, maths, a language, history or geography, and two sciences achieve the EBacc.
Today’s survey of almost 700 maintained secondary schools by the National Centre for Social Research shows that from September 2011:
33% of pupils taking GCSEs in 2012 will be doing a combination of subjects that could lead to an EBacc.
47% of pupils taking GCSEs in 2013 will be doing a combination of subjects that could lead to an EBacc.
(22% of GCSE-stage pupils in 2010 were entered for the EBacc.)
In relation to languages:
In 2010, 43% of pupils at the end of KS4 were entered for a language GCSE.
In 2002, 75% of pupils at the end of KS4 were entered for a language GCSE.
But in 2013, 52% of pupils taking GCSEs will be doing a language.
(Last week’s JCQ figures showed 307,386 pupils took a GCSE in a foreign language this year, compared with 348,191 last year and 553,566 in 2002. French and German suffered the biggest falls (both 13%) in entries of all subjects from 2010 to 2011.)
For more information, go to: http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-8LAEMP, and to download the report, go to: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/RSG/AllRsgPublications/Page1/DFE-RB150.
