Religious Studies provisional examination entries holding steady in England but a worrying decline in entries for A level in Wales.
Religious Studies provisional examination entries holding steady in England but a worrying decline in entries for A level in Wales.
GCSE RS in England 2023
At GCSE, data for England published by Ofqual on 1st June shows Religious Studies GCSE entries have seen an increase of 6% to more than 245K. However, it is disappointing that several other subjects threatened by the English Baccalaureate and associated school performance measures are continuing to see a fall in numbers. As the table below shows, these include Art and Design, Citizenship, Drama, Music and Expressing/Performing Arts.
Ofqual Data (For GCSE England)
Qualifications Wales Data (For GCSE in Wales)
GCSE RS entries in Wales have also remained steady with a very small decrease from 2022.
GCSE entries for Wales (approved for Wales)
Religious Studies |
9,645 |
9,770 |
- 1.3% |
Ofqual Data (For A level England)
At A level, entries increased in many subjects but in most cases these increases were relatively small; less than 10%. The exceptions were Computing and Classics which saw larger changes to the number of candidates. In this context, the small fall of 4% in RS entries is probably explained by the usual variations in the number of students opting for the subject. In contrast, the larger fall in entries for Modern Foreign Languages and Design and Technology are of concern.
Qualifications Wales data (For A level Wales)
A level Religious Studies entries in Wales were the second largest proportional decrease with 27.5% fewer entries in 2023 than 2022. The largest proportional decreases were in Welsh Second Language at 27.5%.
Subject |
Entries in Summer 2022 |
Entries in Summer 2023 |
Percentage change in entries |
1000 |
730 |
-27% |
Sources
final-summer-entries-2023.pdf (qualifications.wales)
Provisional entries for GCSE, AS and A level: summer 2023 exam series - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)