International major football tournaments affects students’ GCSE’s performance
5951 Min Read
Anyone who has ever revised for exams has struggled with the battle to retain focus. That task is made dramatically harder when attempted in the midst of international football tournaments – the ultimate monsters of distraction.
Fascinating new research from respected academics Robert Metcalfe, Simon Burgess and Steven Proud brings home quite how important this is. They compare GCSE results in the 2000s for all teenagers in England in tournament years compared to football-free ones. They find that pupils do significantly worse during tournament years: across all pupils the number achieving the key benchmark of five good GCSEs fell by 12%. Girls, as well as boys, do worse (though the latter are hit harder).
But this overall dip in results is dwarfed when the researchers zoom in on particular groups. The chances of white working-class boys – who already massively underperform other groups – reaching the bar of five good GCSEs fell by 28% during tournament years
Black Caribbean boys experienced a similar decline. Given the study covered years that predated the rise of mass social media, if anything it might understate the effect today.
These are huge effects and their consequences will last a lifetime. Securing five good GCSEs raises the likelihood of progressing with learning and gives a strong boost to future earnings. Debating the impact of football on exams may sound fun, but the findings are incredibly serious.
