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The gap between the best performing and worst performing regions has widened to a record high

The highest GCSE grades have risen once again as boys continue to close the gender gap on girls.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland have received GCSE grades and technical awards today to help them progress on to sixth form, college or training.

Figures showed 22 per cent of UK entries were awarded the top grades, at least a 7 or an A grade, this year, up by 0.1 percentage points on last year, when 21.9 per cent achieved the top grades.

Overall, nearly a quarter (24.4 per cent) of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 7/A compared with almost a fifth of boys’ entries (19.6 per cent): a 4.8 percentage point gap, down from a difference of 5.1 last year.

Meanwhile, 70.2 per cent of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 4/C compared with 64.4 per cent of boys’ entries, a 5.8 percentage point gap, a decrease from 6.2 last year.

These are the narrowest leads enjoyed by girls since at least 2000, which is the earliest archive data available.

Education experts raised long-standing concerns over the gender disparity ahead of results.

The Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys (CPRMB) said the disparities at GCSE level, and in education more widely, can mean boys struggle to thrive after leaving school.

CPRMB Research Officer Martha Lucas said: "When around a third of boys’ entries to GCSE are consistently not meeting a grade four each year, which is the standard pass level, it is a massive concern.

"For a lot of employment, meeting that grade four in maths and English is a barrier to finding that employment.

"This year, the number of male Neets (not in education, employment or training) hit more than 500,000.

"So, boys are consistently leaving school without the qualifications nor education necessary for them to thrive in adult life get a job, be in employment and quite frankly that desperately needs to change."

Breaking it down by region, the gap in top grades between London, the best performing, and the North East, the worst performing, has widened to a record high of 10.9 percentage points up from 10.6 last year.

Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Lee Elliot Major said: "It is a damning indictment of 21st-century Britain that where you happen to grow up has such a profound impact on your educational and life chances.

"Something is fundamentally amiss when children with the same talents and potential face such different prospects simply because of where they happen to live.

"England’s educational divide is a story of London increasingly pulling away from much of the rest of the country. But these broad regional divides conceal an even more troubling geography of opportunity: sometimes a few streets, or a different postcode, can make the difference between a life of opportunity and a life of overlooked talent."

Speaking to GB News this morning, School Standards Minister Georgia Gould said: "It's a really big day, and I'm going straight from here to a school to to talk to young people.

"Young people have worked so hard around the country, supported by families and by their teachers and by teaching assistants. So today is an accumulation of so much hard work.

"We're really proud of young people around the country. I think what I'm hoping for today is a continuation of a the strong pattern of GCSE results we've seen."

Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden added: "I'm sure that you probably remember with trepidation your GCSE results day, as my constituents over in Basildon and Billericay are today and it can be a real moment.

"I think whatever people's results are today though, yes, it is the first moment of the rest of people's lives, but everything is possible from this point."

While traditional A*-G grades are used in Northern Ireland and Wales, in England these have been replaced with a 9-1 system, where 9 is the highest, with 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.

Overall entries for GCSEs have risen slightly, up 0.6 per cent on 2025, after dropping last year.

The overall rate for grades 1/G or above is 97.9 per cent, which is the same as 2025 but is down on 98.3 per cent in 2019.

In England, Ofqual brought GCSE grading standards back in line with pre-Covid levels in 2023, and exam regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland returned to pre-pandemic grading the year after.

The move came after Covid-19 led to an increase in top GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.