THOUSANDS of fewer teens are expected to get top marks as GCSE results are published today.
Ministers predict a return to 2019 result levels after the pandemic ushered in a wave of grade inflation.
Professor Alan Smithers from the University of Buckingham suggested 300,000 fewer entries will be marked a seven or above compared with 2022.
The Department for Education insisted pupils who would have bagged a grade four before Covid are just as likely to get one this year.
Regulator Ofqual said protections were built into the grading process to ensure pupils get the results they would have received in 2019, even if their quality of work is weaker.
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Last night Education Secretary Gillian Keegan praised youngsters for their “tremendous resilience in recent years”.
She said: “Congratulations to everyone receiving their results.
“This cohort should be proud of all the work they’ve done to reach this milestone.
“Students now have more options to choose from than ever before - such as our high-quality T Levels, including legal and agriculture starting from this September.
"Whichever path students decide to take, they can have confidence it will set them up for a successful career.
“I wish everyone the very best as they move onto their next chapter”.
This morning Education Minister Nick Gibb said it's important grades return to normal levels.
He told Times Radio: "These young people have been in schools for two years, they have had disruption to their education particularly in years eight and nine and we have had very significant recovery programmes, a £5 billion recovery programme to help those young people catch up.
"But it is important to get back to normal.
"Exams are the fairest system, and it is fair to have the grading back to 2019 levels consistent to all the years prior to 2019 and consistent with the years next year and the year beyond as well."
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Ministers today raised concerns that the pandemic wrecked progress on closing the attainment gap for hard-up pupils.
Mr Gibb said: "Inevitably the performance of disadvantaged children is lower than more advantaged peers.
"And that's why from 2010 we have sought to close that attainment gap."
"We did achieve a 9% closing of that gap for secondary and we closed the gap by 13% for primary, but that has been undone by Covid, and now we need to get back to normality."
