A north-south divide in the UK's GCSE grades has grown in this year's results - with almost a third of pupils in London getting top grades, compared to just over one in five in the North East.
Figures published today reveal 32.6 per cent of students in London obtained top grades - 7/A or above - in this year's GCSE results, while the figure was 22.4 per cent for those in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber.
It means the figure is some 10.2 percentage points below London - up from last year when the gap between the capital and the North East was 10.0 percentage points. The gap has also widened from 9.3 percentage points pre-Covid in 2019, when 16.4 per cent of North East pupils got a top grade, compared with 25.7 per cent in London.
It comes as figures published today by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) - covering GCSE entries from students predominantly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - showed top grades of 7/A have fallen, as expected, this year.
They went from 28.9 per cent in 2021, when there were no formal exams due to Covid, to 26.3 per cent this year - a drop of 2.6 percentage points.
