The Conservative Party manifesto has pledged to give schools an extra five years to meet the accountability measure of 90% of pupils taking EBacc GCSEs.

The previous deadline for pupils to take GCSEs in English, maths, history or geography, the sciences and a language outlined in the consultation Implementing the English Baccalaureate, was proposed for 2020.  

The outcomes of the EBacc consultation, which closed in January 2016, have not yet been published, but the recent manifesto set out a different target of 2025: “We will expect 75% of pupils to have been entered for the EBacc combination of GCSEs by the end of the next parliament, with 90% of pupils studying this combination of academic GCSEs by 2025.”

The manifesto reaffirmed Conservative plans for “all children to have access to an academic, knowledge-rich curriculum”.