Trends in the teaching of English

The decline of English (2020)

• 2003-19 A-level: English versus Maths and Lang versus Lit (from data on the websites of the four exam boards)

• 2002-2019: Maths up, English down
• 2014-2019: English declined even more than Modern Languages

A-level (A2) English, all boards, June exams only, 2003-2015

• English language
• English Language and Literature
• English Literature
• all A-level Englishes
• sources:
  • AQA
  • Edexcel
  • OCR, with additional help from OCR staff.
  • WJEC & Eduqas

Comment: the ALCAB list of ‘facilitating subjects’, which includes English Literature but not English Language, was first published in 2011, so it may be responsible for the drop in English Language entries since 2013, though not the drop since 2009 in Lang and Lit.

A-level (A2, where relevant) English Language (AQA Lang A&B only), 1985-2010

• click here for figures
• sources:
  • 2000-7: AQA
  • 1990-9: AQA staff provided figures for JMB and NEAB
  • 1983-9: no longer available even in AQA; 210 candidates sat the exam in 1985.