Gillian Keegan says this year’s A-level results are a "testament" to the hard work of students who had a "tough time" through the Covid pandemic. Speaking at the City of London Academy Islington, in north London, the education secretary says: "They've definitely had a tough time and they've definitely had to show their resilience”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 They've definitely had a tough time and they've definitely had to show their resilience.
00:03 I mean, they did have teacher assessed grades at GCSE.
00:06 They did have a lot of disruption during the pandemic.
00:10 And that's why I think it's just our time really to congratulate them.
00:13 They've done so well. They've really shown that they can be resilient, that they have gone back.
00:18 They've studied. I was just talking to some students before.
00:21 They said they practiced exams so that they could get the feel for what exams were like,
00:25 because they hadn't done exams before.
00:27 But I think it's a brilliant testament really to their hard work and their determination,
00:33 how well they've all done.
00:35 Well, the pass rate for A-levels actually is a very good pass rate.
00:38 And what we've done is gone back to the 2019.
00:41 And if you look at the results in 2019, actually more are getting higher grades, A's and A*s,
00:47 than were doing so in 2019, just by a little bit.
00:51 So I think the pass rates do differ.
00:53 And obviously the exams differ and the cohorts differ.
00:55 But what I will say is this year's exam results are a fantastic result.
01:00 Brilliant in terms of destinations, people being able to go on to universities.
01:04 We've had three million young people look at apprenticeships.
01:07 Now we've got them on the UCAS site as well.
01:10 And 350,000 of them have gone on and clicked on to look at more detail of that,
01:15 to get the applications, etc.
01:17 There are so many more opportunities for young people.
01:19 And I just want to say congratulations to them.
01:21 Fantastic. Well done.
01:23 And enjoy where you're going to next.