England is on course to become a genuine maths powerhouse, according to the head of the exams regulator, who has credited reforms introduced more than a decade ago by Michael Gove during his time as education secretary, in reporting first carried by The Times.
Sir Ian Bauckham, chief executive of Ofqual, said this year’s GCSE results point to a steady and encouraging rise in underlying maths attainment among England’s teenagers, a trend he linked directly to improvements in teaching quality and the widespread adoption of “maths mastery” techniques, an approach pioneered in high-performing nations such as Singapore. His comments come even as Education Secretary Andy Burnham pushes ahead with plans to overhaul GCSEs with a greater emphasis on vocational qualifications.
Thursday’s results, released for hundreds of thousands of teenagers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, showed genuinely strong maths performance among 16-year-olds, with more than 22 per cent achieving at least a grade 7 or A, a proud milestone for the country’s schools. Speaking to The Times, Bauckham pointed to robust evidence from the National Reference Test, which tracks standards over time, describing findings that were consistent with last week’s encouraging picture at A-level in maths and further maths.
Bauckham was unequivocal about what lies behind the improvement, telling The Times that high standards flow from great teaching, sustained focus, and, crucially, consistency over many years. He explained that the gains now visible in the middle and upper reaches of GCSE maths have built incrementally over an extended period, with roots stretching back to the primary classroom, where a strong emphasis on mastery-based teaching ensures pupils fully grasp each concept before advancing to the next, so that no child is left behind early in their education. “We’re becoming a maths powerhouse,” he said. “That is great news for the country, it’s great news for the economy and it’s great news also for young people, because that is correlated to greater opportunity and indeed higher earning power.”
The foundations for this success trace back to reforms Gove championed as education secretary, including the introduction of the mastery approach itself, alongside a more demanding national curriculum for primary schools brought in during 2012, deliberately modelled on the world’s highest-performing education systems and encompassing more rigorous content such as the multiplication and division of fractions. Primary schools also introduced times table checks for Year 4 pupils under the same drive to raise standards from an early age, a legacy now bearing fruit in England’s exam halls.
There was further encouraging news for boys, whose overall GCSE results narrowed the gender gap with girls to its smallest margin since 2019, building on strong momentum from last week’s A-level results, in which more boys achieved top grades. Around one in four 16-year-old boys secured at least a grade 7 or A in maths this year.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of education at the University of Buckingham, told The Times that much of the remaining gender gap reflects differing subject choices rather than differing ability, noting that boys tend to gravitate toward quantitative subjects such as maths, physics and economics, fields where clear right answers allow for a higher proportion of top grades, while girls more often choose arts, humanities and social science subjects, where fewer top grades are typically awarded. He observed that as growing numbers of pupils take up quantitative subjects like statistics and economics, where boys have traditionally predominated, the overall gap looks set to continue narrowing.
Bauckham added that the picture varies by subject, noting that boys continue to outperform girls in mathematics and physics specifically, and suggested that broader social trends beyond the classroom, including the differing effects of childhood experiences such as social media and mobile phone use, may also play a role, though he acknowledged the full picture remains unclear.
Set against this backdrop of rising achievement, some challenges remain. Only 16 per cent of 17-year-olds retaking maths this year managed to pass, alongside 21 per cent of those resitting English, prompting Education Secretary Lucy Powell to pledge action against what she has called the “pernicious” resit system, telling The Times she intends to end the resit “treadmill of failure” and is developing a new “stepping stone” qualification, sitting below GCSE level, to help teenagers demonstrate their literacy and numeracy skills to colleges and employers.
Nationally, the proportion of all GCSE entries awarded at least a grade 7 or A rose slightly to 22 per cent this year, up from 21.9 per cent, figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications show, while the overall pass rate at grade 4 or C dipped marginally to 67.3 per cent, though it remained comfortably above the pre-pandemic benchmark of 67.1 per cent recorded in 2019, a solid platform on which England’s maths renaissance continues to build.
To read the full story: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/gcse-results-day-2026-boys-narrow-gap-with-girls-hw2km8wnq
