As the 2025 exam season begins, a new coalition of teaching and policy experts is calling on the Government to aim for at least 90% of 19-year-olds to achieve Level 2 English and maths (GCSE grade 4+) by 2030. This would involve strengthened English and maths study for 16–19-year-olds and reinstating requirements for adult apprentices, coupled with better funding and support.
The English and Maths Coalition (EMC) formed following the launch of the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review. This new expert group comprises Education 720, Get Further, Impetus, Learning and Work Institute, Lexonik, and White Rose Education, as well as individual members leading and teaching in colleges.
The EMC is united in advocating for renewed focus to promote continued English and maths in post-16—including retaining requirements for 16–19-year-olds to study English and maths to close the gap with those who attain at 16, but with better support so more reach this line. It would also involve reinstating the requirement for adult apprentices to gain functional English and maths, which was abandoned by the Department for Education earlier this year. At the time, EMC member Learning and Work Institute called this move from DfE “a mistake.”
Resit outcomes have been on a steep trajectory of improvement and new data confirms that, uniquely, the disadvantage gap closes slightly in 16-19 English and maths. Yet as of 2024, one quarter of 19-year-olds, disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds, are still missing out on a grade 4+ in both English and maths. The EMC is calling for the Government to work with the FE sector to aim for higher success, and to close the disadvantage gap beyond age 16 without creating a two-tier qualification system.
Individuals and organisations are now invited to join the coalition for free if they share EMC’s common principles of aspiration for all students, fair funding and support, professional development for FE teachers, tailored support for students, and accountability and recognition.
Founding member Andrew Otty, formerly the Department for Education’s lead for post-16 English and maths, says:
“As exams begin, we want to make sure FE English and maths teachers feel recognised and celebrated for all they have achieved in the last decade. The recent 16-19 data release from DfE shows that once again the disadvantage, SEND, and gender gaps all close slightly in 16-19. On top of that, from the introduction of the resit policy up to Covid, when data gets messy, achievement had improved by 67%. Nowhere else in education has had that kind of transformative success.”
EMC member Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, says:
“Apprenticeships in England already have less general education like English and maths than best practice countries such as Germany and Norway. OECD data shows that 8.5 million adults in England have low literacy and/or numeracy skills, so we should take every opportunity to support people to get these fundamental skills for work and for life. That means investing in English and maths, and testing out new ways to support apprentices to succeed—not watering down standards.”
In 2013/14, the year before the introduction of the condition of funding (the ‘GCSE resit policy’), progression in English and maths between 16 and 19 was 17 percentage points (37,725 students). By 2018/19 that had risen to 29ppt (62,960). This is an increase of 12ppt, or 67%.
