A great effort, but we’re still behind

An elated Sharmin Ahmed and her equally-successful friend Humayra Begum gets their results at The Radclyffe School

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OLDHAM’S GCSE results have remained pretty much static according to education bosses -despite initial indications of a slight drop.

Work still needs to be done to bring the borough up to the national average Figures show the number of pupils getting the benchmark five A*-C grades, including English and maths, has fallen slightly from 52.4 per cent to 52.3 per cent. The council believes this will rise when the adjusted figures are released by the Government in the autumn.

Most of the borough’s schools kept quiet about their five A* to C pass rate yesterday when sharing their GCSE results with the Oldham Chronicle. Some are believed to have been hit by the changes to grade boundaries in maths exams. Nationally, some schools reported a drop in maths results, though the number of entries getting at least a C in the subject has risen.

Councillor Shoab Akhtar, cabinet member for education and skills, said: “We’re pleased this year’s results are stable and I’d like to congratulate all students who have worked so hard, and I wish them every success for the future. But these results are still below the national average and we know that there’s a lot of work to be done.”

::24 page GCSE supplement in tonight’s paper