The EBacc was scrapped because it missed its own target by a wide margin: ministers set a 90%-by-2025 entry goal in 2017, and uptake never rose past roughly 40%. On 5 November 2025, the Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended removing it as a measure and an aspiration, and the government accepted the same day.
The verdict, in one sentence
Professor Becky Francis's Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report on 5 November 2025, and the government's response — published the very same day — accepted the recommendation to remove the English Baccalaureate as both a school performance measure and a national ambition. The EBacc is discontinued from the 2025/26 performance tables onwards. This article covers why that decision was made and what changes because of it; if you need a refresher on what the EBacc actually was, our EBacc explainer covers the five subject pillars in full.
Why the EBacc never worked as intended
The EBacc was never a qualification — it was a government performance measure tracking how many pupils took a specific GCSE combination (English, maths, science, a humanity, a language). In 2017, the then-schools minister Nick Gibb set an explicit ambition: 75% of Year 10 pupils starting the EBacc combination by 2022, rising to 90% by 2025.
That target was never within reach.
| Milestone | Ambition | Actual outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 interim target | 75% of Year 10 starting EBacc | Well below target |
| 2025 final target | 90% entry | ~39–40% entry |
An entry rate stuck around 40% — less than half the 2025 goal — was one of the clearest pieces of evidence the Review had in front of it. A measure that most schools were never going to hit, no matter how it was reported, was doing little to change behaviour and a great deal to generate friction at options evenings, where staff were pushed to steer pupils towards a combination the data showed most families were not choosing anyway.
What the government actually decided
The Review's recommendation and the government's response, both dated 5 November 2025, are worth reading side by side because the government didn't stop at removing the EBacc — it went further on the measure that used to sit alongside it.
| Recommendation | Government response |
|---|---|
| Remove EBacc as a measure and an aspiration | Accepted — EBacc scrapped from 2025/26 tables |
| Keep the Progress 8 structure, just rename the EBacc "bucket" | Government went further — will reform Progress 8/Attainment 8 itself |
| Cut GCSE exam volume by at least 10% | Accepted; new GCSEs first teaching 2029 |
| Triple science entitlement | Accepted |
Two things follow from that table. First, the EBacc's removal is a done deal — it took effect immediately in the performance-table sense. Second, the government chose not to simply retire the label and carry on as before: it used the moment to publish a wider, proposed overhaul of Progress 8 itself, which is a separate and still-unsettled piece of policy. Our guide to the proposed Progress 8 reform covers that in detail — it is not the same decision as scrapping the EBacc, and it has not been confirmed.
What this means for a family choosing options now
If your child is filling in an options form this year, three practical things follow from the EBacc's abolition:
No pupil is required to take a language or a humanity to satisfy the EBacc. There was never a legal requirement on individual students, but the accountability pressure that pushed schools to build blocks around a humanity-plus-language pairing has now gone. A subject combination that would have looked "off-EBacc" a year ago carries no such flag any more.
Schools may still encourage the old pattern, for reasons of their own. Options booklets printed for 2026–28 entry were mostly drafted before or around the announcement, and plenty still use EBacc language. That is now the school's own curriculum philosophy, not something it is measured against — which makes it a fair and specific question to put to a head of year: is this block built around the old EBacc combination, and is that changing?
The thing that replaces it is not decided yet. The proposed new Progress 8 model would give schools a different, more flexible way to encourage breadth — for instance, religious studies would count as a humanity for the first time, and creative subjects would gain parity with languages. But that model is still under consultation and does not affect any GCSE exam before 2029. Treat it as background context, not as a new set of rules to plan around today.
The upshot for a 2026–27 options conversation: choose on the basis of your child's interests, strengths and the honest content of each subject, not on the basis of a measure that no longer exists.
FAQ
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's removal, and the date the government published its response accepting that recommendation. The measure is discontinued from the 2025/26 performance tables.
Why did the EBacc fail to reach its target?
The 2017 ambition was 90% of pupils entering the EBacc combination by 2025. Actual entry hovered around 39–40% for years — a gap so large that the measure was not credibly tracking towards its own goal, which was central evidence in the Curriculum and Assessment Review's recommendation to drop it.
Does scrapping the EBacc mean my child no longer needs a language or a humanity GCSE?
It means there is no longer a performance-measure reason to insist on one. There was never a legal requirement — no pupil was ever compelled to take the EBacc combination. Some schools will still encourage a language or a humanity for their own curriculum reasons, and dropping a language at 14 does close the door on that language at A-level, which is worth weighing regardless of what any measure says.
Is the replacement for the EBacc confirmed yet?
No. The government has published a proposed reform to Progress 8 with new "breadth" slots, consulted on between 23 February and 4 May 2026, but the consultation response has not yet been published and the new model would not affect GCSEs before 2029. Treat it as proposed, not decided.
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