The English Baccalaureate — or EBacc — was never a separate qualification. It was a government performance measure recording how many students studied GCSEs in five subject areas: English, maths, science, a humanity and a language. It was scrapped in November 2025 and is discontinued from performance tables. If your school still frames its options booklet around it, that is now its own policy, not something it is measured on.
What exactly was the EBacc, and when did it end?
The EBacc was introduced by the DfE in 2010 as a way of measuring the academic breadth of the GCSE choices that secondary schools offered and that students took. It was reported in school performance tables and referenced in Ofsted inspections, and schools with a high proportion of students on the EBacc combination were seen as offering a broad, academically rigorous Key Stage 4 curriculum.
The ministerial ambition, set in 2017, was that 90 per cent of the Year 10 cohort would be studying the combination by 2025. Entry never came close, hovering around 39–40 per cent.
On 5 November 2025, Professor Becky Francis's Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended the EBacc be removed as both a measure and an aspiration. The government accepted the same day, and the measure is now discontinued from performance tables.
The EBacc was not:
- A separate GCSE or qualification — there was never an EBacc certificate
- Compulsory for students — no student ever had to take it
- A guarantee of sixth-form or university entry — universities assess specific grades, not the EBacc label
- Relevant to independent schools, which are not required to use state school performance measures
What replaces the EBacc?
Nothing final, yet. Alongside scrapping the EBacc, the government published a proposed reform of Progress 8 — the measure that scores a school on how far its pupils progress across eight GCSE slots. Under the proposal:
- Slot 1 is English (double-weighted if both English GCSEs are taken) and slot 2 is maths (double-weighted), as now.
- Slots 3 and 4 become science slots, taking the two highest from combined science, biology, chemistry, physics or computer science.
- Slots 5 and 6 become breadth slots, which must be filled from two different categories: humanities (history, geography, Religious Studies — which would count for the first time — and ancient history), creative subjects (art and design, music, drama, dance, Design & Technology), and languages (modern foreign languages plus Latin and Greek; Mandarin and Cantonese are both listed).
- Slots 7 and 8 are open to any two remaining qualifications, including a second English GCSE, further sciences, PE, business or a vocational Tech Award.
The consultation ran 23 February to 4 May 2026; the reformed measure is intended to first apply to GCSEs sat in 2029 — the cohort choosing options now. Two cautions: the government's response was not yet published at the time of writing, so every detail above is proposed, not decided; and Progress 8 is not published at all for 2024–25 or 2025–26, since the KS2 baseline is missing for cohorts whose SATs were cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
Our guide to the proposed breadth rule covers what this would mean for an options form in practice.
Which subjects were in the EBacc?
The EBacc covered five subject pillars. A student "achieved" the EBacc by taking and passing a GCSE in each pillar. The list is worth knowing because most options booklets in circulation were built around it.
| Pillar | Qualifying subjects |
|---|---|
| English | English Language AND English Literature (both required) |
| Maths | GCSE Mathematics |
| Sciences | At least two of: Biology, Chemistry, Physics (Triple Science) OR Combined Science (counts as two) |
| Humanities | GCSE History OR GCSE Geography (one qualifies; both counts once) |
| Languages | Any modern foreign language (French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, etc.) OR ancient language (Latin, Classical Greek, Ancient Hebrew) |
Students taking Art, Music, Drama, Design and Technology, Business Studies or Computer Science as options sat outside the EBacc combination — though these can be excellent, career-relevant GCSEs regardless. Religious Studies never counted as an EBacc humanity; under the proposed replacement, it would.
Does my child have to take the EBacc subjects?
No — and now less so than ever, because the measure was removed in November 2025. It was always a school performance measure rather than a requirement on individual students; no student was ever compelled by law or by any examination body to study the combination.
The lag is the thing to watch. Many schools built their options blocks around the EBacc (grouping non-EBacc options together), ran an explicit "EBacc pathway", and framed the humanities-plus-language choice as the expected path. Those structures will not disappear overnight, and some schools will keep them deliberately. A fair question at options evening is simply: is this block structure still built around the EBacc, and now that the measure has gone, is it staying?
Is the breadth the EBacc encouraged still worth having?
The measure has gone; the underlying arguments for breadth have not entirely gone with it.
Keeping options open: A student who drops languages at GCSE has, in practice, closed the A-level in that language — sixth forms expect the GCSE. Studying History or Geography GCSE makes the A-level more manageable, though it is much less often a hard requirement.
The proposed replacement still rewards breadth: the "breadth" pair described above requires two different categories, so a student who takes only creative subjects, or only humanities, would not fill both slots. That is a school-level measure rather than something an individual is graded on, but it will shape the advice schools give.
What breadth was never worth: the EBacc label itself. Sixth forms and universities read grades, not the combination.
What are the arguments against insisting on the old EBacc combination?
Genuine interests matter: students consistently perform better in subjects they find genuinely engaging. A student passionate about Art or Music but dreading History GCSE may perform worse overall if forced into an EBacc combination against their inclinations.
Career relevance varies: for creative, technical or vocational career paths, the EBacc combination may not be the most useful GCSE set — an aspiring software engineer may gain more from Computer Science than a second humanity, and a student interested in fashion or architecture has good reason to include Art.
Languages are genuinely harder to score in: this is not folklore. Ofqual's 2019 analysis found French and German consistently among the five most severely graded GCSEs (Spanish seventh), and adjustments in 2023 and 2024 narrowed but did not close the gap. A student who dislikes languages and struggles with them may be better off without one if the trade-off is a lower overall grade profile.
EBacc vs non-EBacc: what sixth forms and universities actually look at
Sixth-form colleges and A-level providers look primarily at individual GCSE grades, not at whether the combination constitutes an EBacc. A student with grade 7s and 8s in their chosen GCSEs — EBacc or not — is a stronger applicant than one with grade 4s and 5s in the EBacc combination.
Universities look at A-level grades for most degrees, not GCSE combinations. The Russell Group's Informed Choices guidance is explicit: aside from English and maths, and occasionally a modern language, most universities have no universal GCSE subject requirements. UCL, which used to require a language, now says plainly it does not. The real exceptions are medicine and dentistry, typically asking 6s and often 7s in English Language, maths and science (most accept Combined Science). Researching your child's target career or degree beats reasoning from a framework that no longer exists.
How does the EBacc still affect school options evenings?
Some state schools will still encourage the old combination and keep option blocks built around it, even though the measure has gone. It is worth:
- Asking the school explicitly whether their option blocks were built around the EBacc, and whether they are changing now that it has gone
- Understanding which subjects compete for the same block slot
- Asking whether a student who does not take the humanities or language option is at any disadvantage in that school's setting
- Asking what the school makes of the proposed Progress 8 breadth categories, which would count Religious Studies and creative subjects in a way the EBacc did not
- Making the choices on the basis of your child's interests, strengths, and direction — not on the basis of a performance measure, least of all a retired one
Frequently asked questions
When exactly was the EBacc scrapped?
On 5 November 2025. That is the date the Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report, recommending the EBacc be removed as a measure and as an aspiration, and the date the government published its response accepting the recommendation. The measure is discontinued from the 2025/26 performance tables.
Is the EBacc the same as the GCSE?
No, and it never was. GCSEs are the qualifications students sit and receive grades in. The EBacc was a government performance measure describing a particular combination of GCSEs. A student sat GCSEs; they may or may not have been sitting the EBacc combination. Passing all five pillars meant they had "achieved the EBacc", but the certificates were individual GCSE certificates — there was never an EBacc certificate.
Do schools have to offer the EBacc?
Not any more. State schools were previously expected to offer the combination and were assessed on it; that expectation ended with the measure in November 2025. In practice almost every school still offers all five subject areas anyway — what has gone is the accountability pressure to push pupils into the combination.
Does not doing the old EBacc combination close doors for my child?
Rarely, and usually not in the way parents fear. Not taking a language GCSE won't bar most careers or degrees — the Russell Group says so explicitly — though it does effectively close the A-level in that language. Not taking a humanity is rarely fatal even for a humanities degree. The specific grades matter far more than the shape of the combination, and the retired label now carries no weight at all.
What language counted for the EBacc?
Any modern foreign language offered by a UK exam board (French, Spanish, German, Mandarin and others) counted for the EBacc languages pillar, as did Latin, Ancient Greek and Ancient Hebrew — British Sign Language did not. The proposed Progress 8 languages category looks similar: modern languages plus Latin and Greek, with Mandarin and Cantonese both named.
For curriculum support across EBacc subjects at KS3 and GCSE, see aitutors.me.