What does the dramatic fall in GCSE grades tell us? That private schools were gaming the system

Our school system favours the privately educated – so it's no surprise that the sector inflated grades last year

The number of top GCSE grades has fallen this year. For secondary school teachers, this was hardly a surprise; many of us witnessed how last year's teacher-assessed grades were subject to a certain amount of "moderating upwards". What's striking is where GCSE results have fallen furthest. In private schools, top grades have fallen from 61.2% to 53%, a fall of nearly four times the national average (overall, the proportion of students getting top grades this year fell from 28.9% to 26.3%). Given that most private schools cherrypick their students and have more resources than their state equivalents, why did they feel the need to inflate grades last year?

Private schools have form here. It was arguably as a sop to the independent school sector that Michael Gove introduced the numerical system of grading, whereby students are awarded grades on a nine-point scale. Too many state school students were obtaining A* grades, so Gove introduced the new grade 9 to differentiate the top from the very top. The government seemed to have arrogantly assumed that a further and finer layer of sieving would ensure private school students still came out on top. Private schools have also constantly argued that GCSEs are not rigorous enough. Yet many of them put their students through international GCSEs, which still include coursework elements and are banned in the state sector.

It's unsurprising that institutions that exist to provide unfair advantage to the already privileged will, when given the chance, behave in a manner that perpetuates this inequity. The results from last year's teacher-assessed grades were a clear illustration of this. Teacher-assessed grades were the only sane response to the pandemic and to the inbuilt classism of the algorithm debacle, but there are issues with teachers awarding final grades – in particular because teachers’ professional discretion will err on the generous side. Between 2019 and 2021, top grades awarded by non-selective state schools went up a substantial 7.5%. Yet among private schools, inflation was almost twice as high – a massive 14.2%.

Private schools clearly perceived the system's inbuilt capacity for gaming as an open invitation, in a way that state schools did not. Why? First, many private schools are standalone institutions. State schools have rigorous moderation processes. In department workrooms across the country, teachers check each other's grading. If it's too generous, we mark it down; too harsh, and we mark it up. Yet the independent sector seems to have a less rigorous grade moderation process than state schools. Perhaps it is also less fearful of regulatory authorities. After all, private schools do not fall under the remit of Ofsted, and have their own rather less rigorous inspection regime.

Private schools also face increased levels of parental pressure. Most parents who send their children to private school spend six-figure sums on fees, and therefore expect their children to get top grades. This creates a pressure to deliver results – a factor that probably drove last year's bumper set of top grades within the sector.

Our school system favours children whose parents have the capacity to pay to ensure their offspring achieve top grades, whether through sending them to private school or subsidising their state education with an army of private tutors. In this system, it's no surprise that the independent sector, when given the opportunity to rampantly inflate grades, finds that it would be rude to pass up the opportunity. Education is the same as society at large: in a system that is unfair by design, those with the least integrity benefit the most.

Phil Beadle is an award-winning teacher