GCSEs 'add 10% to wages'

Ministers want more children to stay on at school

A string of GCSEs adds about 10% to your earning power according to a study carried out for the government.

And clocking up three A-levels boosts your wages by as much as 20%.

The government are hoping such figures will help them achieve their target of improving GCSE results.

By next year, ministers want half of all 15-year-olds in England to achieve at least five GCSEs in grades A*-C.

This is one of the highest financial returns for education compared with other European countries

Stephen Timms, school standards minister

Figures just released show they are close to achieving that aim.

This summer 49.8% of 15-year-olds who sat the exams achieved five GCSEs at those grades.

The figures for last year were 49.2%, while those for 1997/8 were 46.3%.

There has been a slight fall in the number of pupils failing to get any passes at GCSE.

This year 5.5% of 15-year-olds achieved no passes, compared to 5.6% in 1999/2000 and 6.6% in 1997/8.

Improvement

The school standards minister Stephen Timms welcomed the improvement in results.

"The government's commitment to driving up standards is delivering real progress.

"We set ourselves a challenging target - and we are on track to meet it.

"The government is determined to encourage students to stay on in education beyond the age of 16.

"Research my department has commissioned underlines further the benefits for individuals, and the economy, when young people stay on in learning.

"This is one of the highest financial returns for education compared with other European countries.

"These are stretching qualifications that have a marked impact on future income."

Research

The report on the link between earnings and qualifications was carried out by Ian Walker and Yu Zhu from Warwick University and will be published next month.

Mr Timms was also keen to support the findings of the government's exams quango that exams are not getting easier.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has issued a point-by-point rejection of claims made by a former maths examiner that standards were being eroded.

Mr Timms said: "It is important that students, teachers and prospective employers alike have confidence that GCSE standards remain consistently challenging year on year.

"We will continue to rigorously monitor standards."