Basic skills results not good enough, say employers

25 August 2005

With only half of pupils scoring acceptable grades in maths GCSEs, the Institute of Directors (IoD) said today that the Government needed to focus much more closely on improving basic skills.

Richard Wilson, Head of Business Policy at the IoD, said:

“We have been told by 95% of our members that the Government’s key priority for education should be to improve standards in English and maths. Today’s GCSEs results show that we still have much further to go: only about 52% of pupils achieved a grade C or above in mathematics and only about 60% secured a grade C or above in English.

“We need to ensure that more pupils leave school with good GCSE results in these two key subject areas, otherwise further progression in education and training is difficult.”