Thousands of Students Are Retaking Exams They Keep Failing. The Government Wants to Fix That.
On GCSE results day, 20 August 2026, new data showed how hard it is for students in England to pass their exams on a second try: only one in seven students retaking GCSE maths after a previous failure got a passing grade this summer. For GCSE English, it was only one in six (The Guardian). Meanwhile, seven in 10 16-year-olds passed both subjects on their first attempt.
GCSEs are the exams students take at around age 16 in England. A grade 4 is considered a pass — it lines up with the old grade C. Any student who falls below grade 4 is required by government rules to keep studying English and maths after age 16, in sixth form or college. Around 620,000 year 11 students in England will be in that position next year.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell described the current resit system as "a hamster wheel" and said the government would go ahead with plans for a new "stepping stone" qualification. This would be aimed at students who scored a grade 2 or worse on their first attempt — giving them a simpler course to build up their skills before retaking the full GCSE (The Guardian). The Department for Education is consulting on the design of these new level 1 "preparation for GCSE" courses, which are meant as a stepping stone toward a later resit, not a replacement (DfE consultation document, published 10 March 2026).
The idea first appeared in the government's 2025 skills white paper, which also announced new V Levels and two other level 2 qualifications (FE Week, 19 October 2025). That same paper criticised colleges for entering students for resits before they were ready (Schools Week, 21 October 2025). Government funding for English and maths post-16 study increased by over 11% in the 2025–26 academic year.
The name for the new qualification has already changed once. The 2025–26 funding guidance called them "stepping stone qualifications." The 2026–27 guidance, published 24 July 2026, switched to "level 1 and entry level qualifications" to avoid confusion (DfE funding guidance, 2026–27).
School and college leaders were equally critical. Pepe Di'Iasio, who leads the Association of School and College Leaders, said the 2026 results prove the current resit policy is not working (The Guardian). Paul Whiteman, head of the National Association of Head Teachers, said students should not be forced into repeated, demotivating resits and called for different kinds of qualifications. Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, warned that the new qualification could create a two-tier system if it is seen as second-class.
The background here is that the rules requiring post-16 English and maths study for students below grade 4 have been in place for years, and resit pass rates have stayed low the whole time. The November 2024 exam series saw about 19% more results issued than November 2023, meaning more students are going through the resit system (Ofqual, 9 January 2025). Overall, 67.1% of students got grade 4 or above in summer 2025, down slightly from 67.4% in 2024, while top grades (grade 7 and above) rose from 21.6% to 21.8% (Ofqual, 21 August 2025). Full 2026 results, including breakdowns by school type, were published by the DfE on 20 August (DfE, summer 2026), and the JCQ has published post-16 results by age and sex (JCQ).
The big question is whether this new qualification will actually help students break out of the cycle Powell called a hamster wheel, or just add another step inside the same system. Di'Iasio and Whiteman want deeper changes to the alternatives available, not just a new course within the existing pathway. Elliot Major's concern about a two-tier system matters because a separate qualification could carry less weight with employers and universities, potentially pushing disadvantaged students further behind. How the qualification is branded, assessed, and recognised will decide whether it becomes a genuine on-ramp or just a detour.
With 620,000 students heading into post-16 English and maths study next year and pass rates for resitters still in the mid-teens, those design choices carry real weight. The consultation is still open, and no start date has been set.
