GCSE and A-Level Entry Figures 2026: What the Shift Away From Computing and Languages Means for Your Child's Choices

I have enough to write the article. Key facts confirmed:

• GCSE Computing down 7% (from 93,980 in 2024 peak to 83,330 in 2026 — over 10,000 fewer in two years)
• French GCSE down 5.5% (130,650 to 121,040)
• Overall GCSE entries up 1.1% to 5,840,185
• A-level entries up 2.9% to 845,485 (driven by 4.3% rise in 18-year-olds)
• 8 of 15 EBacc subjects saw decreases
• DfE plans to scrap EBacc following curriculum and assessment review
• German rose 0.3%, Spanish continues to rise, Maths up 2.4%

The headline figures

Ofqual has released its provisional entry statistics for GCSEs and A-levels for this year's summer exams, and two subjects stand out for the wrong reasons. More than 10,000 fewer students are sitting GCSE computing compared to two years ago, while French has also seen a sharp decline.

The specifics matter if your child is currently weighing options. The number of students taking GCSE computing fell by 7 per cent compared to the previous year. The subject had started to decline last year after year-on-year rises since 2022, peaking at 93,980 entries in 2024. But this summer just 83,330 students have entered the subject. French also saw a 5.5 per cent drop. Entries rose between 2022 and 2024 to 130,650 but have dropped to 121,040 this year.

That is against a backdrop of rising entries overall. GCSE entries increased by 1.1 per cent, to 5,840,185 in summer 2026. The number of A-level entries have also increased to 845,485 – a 2.9 per cent rise. This was down to a 4.3 per cent increase in the number of 18 year olds. So the fall in Computing and French is not a demographic quirk. Fewer children are actively choosing these subjects.

What's driving the decline

The picture is not uniform across subjects that might seem similar. German saw a slight rise of 0.3 per cent to 32,525, after entries fell by 7.6 per cent last year. Spanish continues its long run of growth. So "languages are dying" is too neat a story — French, specifically, is losing ground while Spanish is not.

For Computing, the drop is harder to explain in a sentence. The subject has a reputation among Year 9 pupils as content-heavy and unforgiving in its assessment, and take-up had already begun softening the year before. It is worth noting that Computing continues to have the lowest pass rate at A-level — a fact that filters back down to GCSE choosers via older siblings and school rumour, whether or not it reflects the difficulty of the subject itself.

Policy is the other moving part. The Department for Education said it aimed, for example, to scrap the English Baccalaureate performance measure, following the "failure of the EBacc measure to encourage take-up of subjects including languages" and its "constraining" of student choice. The EBacc, introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove in 2010, was attacked for prioritising certain "academic" subjects at GCSE. The EBacc — the set of subjects (English, maths, sciences, a language, and either history or geography) that schools are measured on — has for years pushed pupils towards a language GCSE. If it goes, that gentle pressure goes with it.

But the 2026 figures were largely locked in before the government's response to the curriculum and assessment review landed. Pupils generally choose their GCSE options in year 9, meaning the impact of the government's decision won't be seen immediately. What we are seeing this summer is drift, not a reaction to policy change.

What smaller cohorts mean in practice

If your child is one of the students who does choose Computing or French, the falling numbers have practical consequences.

• Class sizes shrink, sometimes below viable levels. A GCSE French set of 12 is manageable. Six is a difficult teaching group. At A-level the effect is sharper — some sixth forms will refuse to run a subject with fewer than eight or ten students, or will combine year groups.
• Staffing gets thinner. Schools facing declining entries do not usually replace a departing specialist. Over three or four years, a two-teacher French department can become a one-teacher department, with all the timetabling knock-ons that implies.
• Fewer peers to work alongside. For essay-based language work, a smaller group means less variety in speaking practice and fewer models of good written work.
• Setting disappears. In a subject with only one class, everyone is taught together regardless of prior attainment. Strong linguists and struggling ones share the same lessons.

None of this means the subjects are worse choices. Small cohorts often produce close working relationships with teachers and strong results. But it is worth walking into the decision with clear eyes.

When entry trends should influence a choice — and when they shouldn't

There is a temptation to read entry data as market signal: if fewer children are picking French, perhaps something is wrong with French. That is the wrong lesson.

Trends worth considering:

• Whether your child's school can actually offer the subject reliably at A-level. Ask directly: what's the minimum group size, and what happens if you're one below it?
• Whether a subject's cohort at your specific school is falling. Ask the head of department about entries over the last three years.
• For A-level: whether university courses your child is interested in still value the subject. Modern language degrees, for example, are also seeing pressure, which affects onward options.

Trends worth ignoring:

• National popularity as a measure of subject quality. French is not less useful than it was in 2024.
• Perceived difficulty gleaned from playground talk. Grade boundaries adjust; a subject is not "harder" just because top grades are rarer.
• The assumption that Computing prepares a child for the tech sector better than maths, physics, or a strong general education. It doesn't necessarily — universities and employers are generally more interested in analytical ability than a specific GCSE.

The practical decision

The framework we'd suggest to parents in Year 9 or Year 11 conversations right now is straightforward.

Start with what the child is good at and interested in — that has not changed. Then check the school's provision: is the subject definitely running, who teaches it, and how many pupils are likely to be in the class. Then check downstream: does it open or close doors for the courses or careers being considered.

If a child loves French, choose French. A smaller GCSE cohort of committed linguists is a strong environment. If a child is a natural coder, Computing GCSE is still worthwhile, though it is worth asking whether Further Maths or Physics might do a similar job for their long-term goals with less risk of a small class evaporating.

Where private tutoring can help in a shrinking-cohort subject is in filling the gaps that smaller school groups leave: exam-technique practice, sustained one-to-one speaking work in a language, or debugging support in coursework. Not as a replacement for the classroom, but as a way of thickening the experience when the classroom itself is thinner than it used to be.

What to watch next

The provisional data will be updated when final entries are confirmed later this year, and results in August 2026 will show whether the shrinking cohorts also correspond to shifts in outcomes. The bigger question — whether removing the EBacc changes take-up of languages in either direction — will not be answered until the Year 9s choosing options in spring 2026 sit their exams in 2028.

For now: don't let a national trend override a good local decision. Ask the school the specific questions, and choose the subject, not the statistic.