The gap in A-level results between state and private schools has widened again this year, sparking fresh concerns about an education divide.
Exams data for 2024 shows the gulf in achievement at grade C and above is the biggest in any year since 2018, when current data began.
State school pupils are also falling behind in terms of A*-A grades.
In total, almost half (49.4%) of A-level entries at independent schools this year were awarded A and above, compared with less than a quarter (22.3%) at comprehensives.
This is a gap of 27.1 points, compared to 25.4 in 2023 and 24.8 in 2019, though below the peak of 31.4 points in 2021 – in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, 26.5% of entries at academies this year received A and above, 22.9 points behind private schools and 4.2 percentage points above comprehensives.
Academies are state schools which are free from local authority control and receive funding directly.
At grade C and above, 89.8% of private school entries reached this benchmark, compared to 76.0% for academies and 73.4% for comprehensives.
This is a 16.4 percentage point gap between private schools and comprehensives, up from 15.7 points last year and the largest in any year since current data began in 2018.
It also represents a 13.8-point gap between private schools and academies – again, the largest in any year since 2018.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, told PA: “This year’s results reveal one of the most troubling trends in the post-pandemic era: a widening divide in top A-level grades between private and state school students.
“It is simply not acceptable that private school pupils are more than twice as likely to secure top A or A* grades compared with their state school counterparts.”
He added: “The problem for today’s generations, and a Government committed to dismantling barriers to opportunity, is that the social mobility dials are currently pointing in the wrong direction.
“Amid Covid upheavals, rising child poverty and record levels of school absenteeism and mental health needs, it’s a marvel that so many teenagers have excelled in their studies.”
Prof Elliot Major said work can be done to equalise opportunity and it does not have to incur high costs.
He said: “We need to create a school curriculum fit for all children, develop guidance for teachers so they can better help children from the poorest backgrounds, and rebalance Ofsted school inspections to ensure that all schools are genuinely inclusive.
“Universities, meanwhile, could develop more transparent contextual admissions and inclusive campuses alongside innovative schemes deploying undergrads as school tutors contributing to the wider good.”
“One of the important things about having a qualification system that is the same for everybody up and down the country is that it is fair to everybody at the point of taking their exams.”
Ofqual’s chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham said it is important the qualification system is “the same for everybody up and down the country” and fair to everyone taking exams.
He told PA that there are some disparities and that Ofqual is interested in “those geographical or regional disparities, and gaps between the achievements of students in independent schools and state funded schools”.
Sir Ian said: “I don’t think any of us who have worked in education – and I’ve worked in education for nearly 40 years – is complacent or happy about that. We are all absolutely focused on making that better.
“And that’s about improving resourcing, it’s about improving facilities, it’s about improving teaching, it’s about improving everything that contributes to a student’s learning journey and reaching the point where they’re assessed.”
