HC Deb 21 January 1988 vol 125 cc791-3W
Mr. Nicholas Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he has as to the relative performance of(a) state maintained and (b) independent schools in England and Wales at (i) GCE O-level grades A to C and CSE grade 1 and (ii) GCE A-level, in 1965, 1975 and 1985, taking into account the number and percentage of pupils educated in each sector in each of these years.

Mrs. Rumbold

Indicators of relative school performance would require information on the attainments and aptitudes of pupils on entry to the school or proxies for this, not collected by the Department. The GCE O-level grades A to C and CSE grade 1 examination achievements of school leavers from maintained and independent schools are as follows, expressed in terms of the number of leavers from each sector.

For GCE A-level the attainments are expressed in terms of the 17-year-old population. Because attendance post-16 is not compulsory, it is not appropriate to express A-level attainments as a percentage of school rolls.

Table 1
School Leavers, England1 expressed as a percentage of leavers in each category
Academic year
11964–65 1974–75 1984–85
Maintained schools
Percentage of leavers with
1 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 3n.a. 46.1 52.2
5 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 16.9 19.1 23.7
Total leavers (000s) 600.10 608.84 690.99
Independent schools
Percentage of leavers with
1 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 3n.a. 94.2 93.5
5 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 67.3 72.7 75.8
Total leavers (000s) 45.70 42.87 45.22
All schools
Percentage of leavers with
1 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 35.9 49.2 54.7
5 or more higher2 grades at O-level or CSE 20.5 22.6 26.9
Total leavers (000s) 645.78 651.71 736.21
Source: School leavers sample survey. Data subject to sampling error.
1 England and Wales for 1974–75.
2 O-level grades A-C, CSE grade 1.
3 Not available.

Table 2
School Leavers, England1 leavers with GCE A-level passes as a percentage of the 17-year-old population2
Academic year
11964–65 1974–75 1984–85
Maintained schools
1 1.6 2.6 2.5
2 2.2 3.2 3.3
3 or more 3.8 5.7 6.8
Total 7.6 11.4 12.6
Independent schools
1 0.5 0.5 0.4
2 0.7 0.8 0.6
3 or more 1.4 2.4 2.9
Total 2.6 3.7 3.9
All schools
1 2.1 3.1 2.9
2 2.9 4.0 3.9

Academic year
11964–65 1974–75 1984–85
3 or more 5.2 8.0 9.7
Total 10.2 15.2 16.5
17-year-old population (000s) 812 662 763
Source: School Leavers sample survey. Data subject to sampling error.
1 England and Wales for 1964–65.
2 GAD estimates of the population.