The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in England has grown again.
In London, 32.1% of A-level grades were marked at A* or A. In the North East, it’s 22.9%.
That’s a 9.2 percentage point gap – up from 8.8 last year, when the East Midlands was the lowest-performing region.
The North East and the West Midlands are the only regions to see falls in the proportion of top grades this year.
And the North East is the only region where that proportion is lower than both 2024 and 2019 – the last year that exams were sat before the Covid pandemic.
We don’t have breakdowns of grades by ethnicity or free school meal status right now – that comes later in the year – but Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said that “too often, opportunities depend on background rather than talent”.
“The entrenched divide in outcomes seen over the last few years and the lack of progress for children from white working-class backgrounds is particularly concerning,” she said.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said there were “significant and deep-seated regional disparities”.
“The pandemic has had long-lasting consequences and the grades our young people are using to apply for the most competitive university or apprenticeship places remain lower than those in regions such as London,” he said.