GCSE results: hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland await grades – latest updates

Lucy Powell said the government is looking at changing the resits policy in England , where students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English or maths GCSE are required to retake those exams.

As the Guardian’s education editor Richard Adams reported yesterday, research shows compulsory resits in England were having a negative impact on teenagers’ mental wellbeing. You can read Richard’s report here .

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Powell said only one in five students who resit English and maths were passing them.

“For some, they’re doing it many times over,” she added. “So we’re branding them a failure after failure after failure. It’s knocking their confidence.

“It’s not giving them the passport that they need to go on to do something like an apprenticeship, or for others to go on to further study.”

She said the government is introducing a new “pathway qualification” at level one, which is below GCSEs at level two.

Powell said this would give “a high level of literacy and numeracy”, adding: “I want to work with employers so that it’s credible, so that that would be a sufficient gateway to get on to the next path.”