As most parents of 15- and 16-year-olds are well aware, the GCSE examination season has commenced. Teenagers across the country are filing into examination halls, the air thick with anxiety and perspiration, to demonstrate the knowledge accumulated over the past twelve years. However, not all students are entering these halls for the same purpose.
This week, a group of students in Leytonstone confronted their teachers, who are on strike during the exam period, demanding, "Teach us or quit." According to reports from The Telegraph, parents claimed that approximately 80 pupils were being supervised by a single teacher in an assembly hall. This incident unfolds as the National Education Union (NEU) prepares to formally ballot its members on strike action. The Department for Education described the NEU's announcement as "extremely disappointing," warning that children and parents would ultimately "pay the price" for any industrial action. The union has also cautioned that GCSE and A-level results could be delayed if strikes proceed.
Moreover, thousands of pupils will miss the exam season entirely, a phenomenon partly driven by persistent and severe school absenteeism, which has been on the rise since the pandemic. Although overall attendance had improved slightly by March 2026, "severe" absence has reached record highs. Approximately 1.34 million students (18.1 per cent) miss more than one in ten school days, classified as persistent absenteeism. Of these, around 177,000 (2.39 per cent) are severely absent, missing over 50 per cent of school. The highest rates of absenteeism occur in the crucial Year 11, as pupils who have missed substantial portions of their coursework conclude that attending is futile, given the slim prospects of passing their GCSEs.
Ella Deanus, who leads the South West Herts Partnership, works on the front line supporting families. One of their most sought-after services involves assisting families grappling with persistent or severe absenteeism. "The absence very rarely starts in Year 11," Deanus explains. "It is an accumulation of emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), meaning they have lost so much time and content that it becomes nearly impossible. A Year 10 boy I am working with is on a reduced timetable and has a supportive school, but his mental health is so low that he will not return, despite reasonable adjustments."
Since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, EBSA has become widespread, with poor child and teenage mental health presenting significant attendance challenges in almost every school. However, there is another factor at play: a growing "anti-school" movement, particularly in the UK, the US, and some European countries. Public trust in authority—whether government, law, medicine, or media—is rapidly declining, and this scepticism is increasingly extending to education and higher education. Online communities that reject traditional education and public exams are expanding. Many of these communities intersect with anti-vaccine groups, suggesting that suspicion of medicine and vaccinations can lead algorithms to direct users toward "anti-school" content and discussion groups.
Maggie, 44, lives in Cambridge and has two teenage children aged 13 and 15. Although she lacks the means to homeschool her teenagers, which would be her preference, she has been seriously considering withdrawing them from public exams. She explains her reasoning: "I do not even believe they are marked fairly or on the same level, with 'good' schools getting the best results and ensuring those children secure top university places and jobs, while 'bad' schools get the worst results. Why do you think no one in government sends their children to 'our' schools? Because they know the system is rigged."
Whether one shares Maggie's conspiratorial view of the UK, the facts speak for themselves, and it appears that girls are particularly affected. In her Radio 4 series About the Girls, Catherine Carr spoke to approximately 150 girls, the vast majority aged 13 to 17, and found that chronic absenteeism (missing 50 per cent or more of school sessions) is on the rise. In 2017/18, only 6 per cent of girls affected by absenteeism were severely absent. By 2024/25, that proportion had more than doubled to 13 per cent. Absence rates were higher for certain groups, including pupils eligible for free school meals. Parents cited reasons such as mental health issues like anxiety and caring responsibilities, with girls as young as Year 6 tasked with looking after younger siblings, resulting in missed lessons.
Tom Campbell, who heads the ACT Academy Trust, which operates 38 schools in England and Wales, told Carr: "The decline [for girls] is real. And the data is flashing red." GCSE passes in English and maths at grade 4 (previously a grade C) have fallen by 7 per cent.
Meanwhile, a growing number of people on social media and at the school gates are questioning the validity and fairness of the exams. Pete, whose daughter Anne-Marie* is sitting GCSEs this summer, harbours a growing suspicion that the exams and marking system "are not fair"—a sentiment he shares with his daughter, who does not wish to take the exams. Their mistrust intensified last week when the Sutton Trust released data showing that the top 500 schools in the UK were severely limiting access for SEND and economically disadvantaged pupils. This data has galvanised online anti-school and anti-exam communities, who believe these elite schools operate under a different system than less high-achieving schools.
"It is a system as old as time," says Pete, who lives in northwest London. "One rule for 'them' and one rule for 'us.' But if you do not play by those rules, they cannot categorise children, can they? I think parents and children saying 'no thanks' to GCSEs are sort of messing with the system."
Unsurprisingly, Generation Alpha teens, who are prone to conspiracy theories, are latching onto this outbreak of anti-school and anti-exam sentiments. TikTok videos from users explaining why they are not taking their GCSEs are amassing millions of views, and this conspiracy frequently appears as a reason not to bother. The challenge for teachers and headteachers trying to counter this rationale is that schools empirically operate on a two-tier system. Wealthy children enjoy state-of-the-art theatres, language and sports centres, top-quality learning resources, and committed teachers who guide them to top grades, while the poorest children attend buildings with collapsing ceilings, few resources, and a revolving door of teachers who sometimes do not last a term. When speaking with Maggie and Pete, they believe school inequality is not merely economic but part of an intentional system designed to elevate some children while holding others back.
Callie*, 16, agrees. She is organising a walkout of her GCSE science exam, planning to livestream it under a specific hashtag she is sharing with her followers. She is protesting because her year group at her school in Bristol has not had a teacher for any science subject—except briefly for biology—for the entire GCSE course. They have only received handouts, videos, and occasional supply teachers. As a result, the entire Year 11 class feels unprepared and shortchanged.
This experience is mirrored in many schools across the country, which are grappling with a severe teacher shortage crisis, and some of this cohort is not taking it lying down. "I was really good at science and would have been an eight or a nine student," says Callie, who is connecting with thousands of other students on social media who want to follow her lead. "But we have not had proper teachers in over two years, and we have missed so much that I will be lucky to get a five or six. I am angry at the school, but I am more angry at the government. We do not have the same chances as other students, so I decided not to be quiet about it. And if you go on social media, millions of people our age are sick of how unfair school and exams have become."
The Department for Education is unequivocal about the consequences of persistent and severe absence, summarising them in clear terms: "Missing school does not just affect exam results and a child's time in education—it can impact future earnings too. Persistently absent pupils in secondary school could earn £10,000 less at age 28 compared to pupils with near-perfect attendance."
However, these warnings are unlikely to surprise angry parents and students who believe educational and economic inequality are embedded in the system and that they are its victims. All warning signs point to a summer of unrest, with rising costs, petrol uncertainty, and now the government potentially facing a new cohort of angry protesters: parents and students who feel the school system has not only failed them but is intentionally disadvantaging them so that better-off children can claim a larger share of an ever-shrinking job and opportunity market.
Maggie explains her reasoning: "The GCSE exams justify how everything after those exams becomes a sorting hat. You belong to a group destined for success and high earnings, and you belong to a group that is not. So, it is past time for people to take that away. And if that means more of us reject this system, I think it is the only power we might have to make things fairer."
*Names have been changed.
