This section sets out how the design of Key Stage 4 creates challenges for ensuring all students engage in a structured and coherent set of subjects that best supports their learning and future pathways. It discusses the importance, from an equity perspective, of nationally structured programmes of learning linked to labour market needs. It also addresses the challenges that a dense programme of learning can create for skills development, especially for students who enter Key Stage 4 with weaker skills.
Building core literacy, numeracy and digital skills in the first phase of upper secondary education in Northern Ireland
Learning in Key Stage 4 is driven by the qualifications students take, with students having dense programmes of learning and assessment. The strong focus on assessment at Key Stage 4 risks minimising the potential for deeper learning and restricting time and space for students with weaker skills to reach expected levels in key areas of maths and English.
Option 1: Reduce the assessment load at Key Stage 4 to focus on core maths and English skills
High-stakes assessment at 14-16 is not strictly necessary given students do another round of assessment and certification at ages 16-18; provided students still develop the skills and knowledge they need to progress to more advanced levels of study.
Option 2: Revisit the approach to “Entitlement” to focus on what a student experiences
Northern Ireland could consider “entitlement” from the perspective of what a student experiences, rather than what a school offers. This could look like guidance for schools on maximising coherence across a programme.
Option 3: Ensure that subjects and qualifications are up-to-date and fit-for-purpose
Northern Ireland could ensure that qualifications can be readily updated to reflect changing needs in a discipline or sector.
In Key Stage 4, there is little guidance for schools on how to construct programmes of learning for students. All schools offer and place a strong focus on GCSEs – since GCSEs are key for accessing post-16 pathways and even higher education and employment – yet there is no set structure for combining subjects into a programme of learning. In internationally comparative terms, a “programme” is a coherent set or sequence of educational activities designed and organised to achieve predetermined learning objectives or accomplish a specific set of educational tasks over a sustained period (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2012[37]). Most OECD countries tend to provide multiple upper secondary programmes, including general and vocational programmes, where the combination of subjects and options a student takes (albeit often with some room for student choice) leads towards a clearly defined goal (OECD, 2024[38]). For example, in Sweden, students in a general programme can choose a scientific or humanities specialisation, depending on their future aspirations (see the example of Sweden in Box 2).
In Sweden, when deciding to do either vocational or general upper secondary education, students also select from a choice of 18 programmes, such as Electricity and Engineering (vocational) and Economics (general). These programmes are aligned to post-secondary study and employment goals. Programmes include compulsory subjects and also structured options for specialisation (see Figure 4).
Note: Adapted from OECD (2024[39]), “What shapes upper secondary pathways and transitions?: Insights for Wales”, OECD Education Policy Perspectives, No. 90, https://doi.org/10.1787/7139d7f1-en.
Source: Skolverket [Swedish National Agency for Education], (n.d.[40]), Läroplan, program och ämnen i gymnasieskolan [Curriculum, programmes and subjects in upper secondary school], www.skolverket.se/undervisning/gymnasieskolan (accessed 31 October 2023).
In Northern Ireland, Key Stage 4 represents a single programme designed to support diverse goals, which can be structured in numerous ways. Schools have a high degree of responsibility over the qualifications they offer compared with many other countries across the OECD (Figure 3). There is a free market of qualifications and schools can choose from approximately 400 courses and qualifications that have been accredited in the Northern Ireland entitlement framework qualifications accreditation number (NIEFQAN) file. However, the accredited list of qualifications does not provide insight or guidance as to which qualifications might be appropriate for different students’ needs and future ambitions. The accreditation process does not include verification to ensure alignment with Key Stage 4 learning objectives or future learning pathways, such as which qualifications higher education institutions will consider for entry (NI Dept. of Education, 2025[41]).
4.1.1. Schools create their own programmes to meet different student needs
Despite not having nationally developed programmes, many schools in Northern Ireland do effectively create their own programmes for different student profiles using available qualifications. Based on discussions with principals and teachers, school-developed programmes often include:
A traditional academic pathway composed entirely or almost entirely of GCSEs.
A pathway primarily composed of GCSEs with some applied/vocational qualifications.
A pathway with core GCSEs in maths and English Language and a greater proportion of other non-GCSE qualifications such as applied/vocational and personal development and effectiveness qualifications.
Schools’ ability to use their flexibility to craft tailored programmes for their student cohorts can support positive outcomes, with schools able to create different programmes reflecting their students’ needs, interests and the local economy. However, individual students are dependent on their school providing such carefully crafted programmes, creating concerns about equitable access.
Designing meaningful programmes of learning that meet students’ current and future needs and support national economic growth is highly challenging. Schools’ flexibility over the courses they offer, in the absence of guidance or requirements for what students take, creates considerable challenges to ensure that school-designed programmes are of equal quality across the country and all link to clear future pathways. For schools, making informed and appropriate decisions for all students about the qualifications they offer is complicated by the extensive range of available qualifications, often promoted through commercial channels. Furthermore, each qualification is developed independently rather than as a building block within a structured programme, meaning that subjects are not designed to be complementary and the scaffolding of skills development may not extend beyond the boundaries of individual qualifications.
Most significantly, individual schools lack the capacity to ensure that each qualification aligns with local and national economic requirements or provides meaningful post-16 pathways. In some cases, students have taken qualifications that were not recognised by higher education institutions. It is not feasible for schools to verify the recognition of each qualification by the multiple higher education institutions across the United Kingdom. This challenge is compounded by the fact that schools are naturally not experienced analysts of labour market dynamics, evolving skills requirements and the actual needs and expectations of further and higher education providers. In the absence of formal guidance about how to create programmes for diverse student levels and aspirations, and evidence about the relationships between individual qualifications and post-16 education and employment, it is difficult for schools to know they are making the best choices.
Programme design challenges particularly impact students who start Key Stage 4 at a lower achievement level since they are most in need of carefully designed programmes that scaffold their skills development. Students’ parents and families – and schools themselves – may be less familiar with options beyond GCSEs and so it may be hard for them to understand the relative merits and trade-offs of different options, including the consequences that options taken at Key Stage 4 will have on students’ future pathways.
As an illustration of these challenges, a growing proportion of students in Northern Ireland take non-GCSE equivalent qualifications. In 2019, 4% of Year 12 students took at least one non-GCSE equivalent qualification as part of a package of five or more GCSEs (or equivalents), compared to double, 8% in 2024.1 In some cases, these qualifications might be the best fit for students, but stakeholders indicated concerns regarding the robustness, rigour and future pathways of such qualifications. In the absence of overall policy or guidance about when and how to use different qualifications, schools must make important decisions with partial information.
Many countries across the OECD face the challenge of curriculum and assessment lagging behind evolutions and developments in the labour market and wider society (OECD, 2020[42]). This is particularly observed in the tech sector, which has experienced rapid development in the last few decades, fundamentally changing the way individuals access knowledge and creating new skills demands (OECD, 2016[43]). More broadly, upper secondary programmes and qualifications must respond to evolving needs such as digital technologies becoming pervasive, an expanding knowledge economy and the imperative of the green transition (OECD, 2019[44]; OECD, 2022[45]).
In Northern Ireland, while the services sector plays a large role in the economy, other sectors, such has financial services and digital tech, are important for future growth (DfE, 2020[46]). Upper secondary education, and the assessment and qualifications within it, need to respond to current and evolving skills needs to enable young people to become the entrepreneurs, creators and innovators of tomorrow. Among the teachers and principals surveyed for this project, most felt that current qualifications enable young people to develop important skills needed for the future. The majority, 87% (40 out of 46), of teachers and school leaders agreed or strongly agreed that the qualifications students take in Key Stage 4 enable them to develop important skills for their education, job and life after school (Table ).
However, discussions with stakeholders revealed important concerns about the relevance of specific content. Some stakeholders noted that content has been added to GCSEs without a comprehensive review of what might be removed, resulting in qualifications that feel overcrowded with some outdated material. The need for updated qualifications is particularly acute in the area of digital technology, where technological developments has been rapid and the gap between curriculum content and industry practice has widened significantly. Many school leaders also noted that they want to provide vocational options for students that are more engaging and more clearly develop their vocational skills and knowledge.
4.2.1. Some qualifications need updating
The current set of GCSEs in Northern Ireland were developed around ten years ago and first taught in 2017. Some of these qualifications now contain outdated content. This is particularly evident in fast‑evolving subject areas such as digital technology, where rapid advancements have outpaced the curriculum. For example, the Digital Technology GCSE references the Data Protection Act 1998 rather than the more recent UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and lacks coverage of modern technologies such as AI or blockchain (CCEA, 2017[21]). Schools and students also reported that the mode of assessment does not always align with industry practice, with students having to complete digital task assessments using non-digital methods, creating unnecessary workload without developing relevant skills.
When updating GCSEs, especially in quickly evolving areas, it is important that there is a system-wide understanding of what knowledge and skills are likely to endure, as well as which knowledge and skills are likely to provide important foundations for future learning. Without a system-wide understanding of why specific digital topics (e.g. online banking and e-commerce) and skills (e.g. specific programming languages or products) are included, the specifications run the risk of incorporating content popular in a given news cycle with finite application, which can become outdated quickly. Even though specifications are developed with expert consultation, even experts may disagree and create somewhat incoherent standards if not aligned to a system-wide understanding of priority knowledge and skills.
One of the challenges shared by stakeholders around ensuring up-to-date qualifications in Northern Ireland is the current accreditation process for GCSEs. The process is reportedly heavy which discourages regular evaluation of content specifications and timely updates to reflect changing disciplinary needs and technological advances. In some cases, it means that content can be added without a thorough review of the continued relevance and value of existing content which can make some qualifications – with GCSE Maths cited as an example – ultimately quite heavy and dense.
When learning and skills development occurs in subject-specific qualifications, cross-cutting and underpinning skills can be missed (OECD, 2020[47]). During workshops in Northern Ireland, students, teachers and principals identified several important literacy, numeracy and digital skills which they felt were not typically developed in a regular school week. Examples of such skills include editing one’s own work, spotting online scams and critically using and assessing the use of data. Having a timetable based on subject-specific qualifications without cross-cutting goals for upper secondary education can mean that broader skills, like critically using data, can be underdeveloped.
In Northern Ireland, the challenges of using qualifications as the main way to structure learning at 14-18 is particularly evident for digital skills. Students participating in the workshops who were taking or had taken digital qualifications felt that they were developing quite technical, detailed digital skills like programming or developing creative digital outputs. However, most students not taking digital qualifications did not feel they developed many digital skills at all. Across the country, the latter represent the vast majority of students – in 2023/24, just 15.7% of students were taking a digital qualification.2 Many students, teachers and school leaders identified skills like understanding how your data are collected, spotting scams and taking steps to protect mental health and well-being online as top digital skills young people need. However, significantly fewer groups of students, teachers and school leaders felt that these skills were practised in a typical school week. For example, while 12 groups of teachers, principals and students identified understanding how your data are collected as a critical skill for students to develop during Key Stage 4, only three groups felt that this understanding was typically developed and practised during a school week (Figure 5).
Number of groups of students, teachers and principals identifying digital skills as “most important” and digital skills typically practised in a typical school week
Note: Data is represented from 27 groups of teachers, students and principals in total. This includes 10 groups of students, 8 groups of teachers and 9 groups of principals. For this exercise, each group were asked to identify the skills they deemed most important. Then, among these skills, groups were asked to identify those skills students would develop in a regular week at school.
Data collected during the workshops was not representative of schools and students across Northern Ireland.
Source: OECD workshops with students, teachers and school principals, March 2025.
The absence of space for broader skills development was also echoed for other non-digital skills. For example, stakeholders indicated that they felt that current qualifications, particularly GCSEs, do not provide space for students to develop transversal skills like critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration. The OECD team received feedback from teachers who felt that they did not have enough time to take questions from students when teaching GCSE classes, otherwise they would risk falling behind schedule and not cover all the required content for exams. One consequence is that this limits time for broader discussion, reflection and debate.
GCSE specifications are content heavy, often to the detriment of usefulness. (Feedback from a school principal)
4.3.1. The density and intensity of students’ timetables may prevent them from developing the skills they need for future pathways
The large number of GCSEs and other qualifications taken by students makes for particularly dense programmes of learning in Northern Ireland. In 2023/24, students in Year 12 (age 16) took an average of 8.8 qualifications, comprising 7.1 GCSEs and 1.8 non-GCSE qualifications (e.g. BTECs) 3. Some students even took up to 12 GCSEs, and up to 15 qualifications overall.4 While international comparisons are complex due to different programme structures (as students in some systems might do fewer subjects but spend more time on each subject, or the inverse), in most countries students take 6-8 subjects in upper secondary (Stronati, 2023[48]). PISA data also suggests that students in Northern Ireland spend a long time in the classroom. Fifteen-year-old students in Northern Ireland spend on average, 28.6 hours a week in regular lessons, the second highest amount of time across all OECD countries. Furthermore, 17.4% of students in Northern Ireland spend 40 hours or more in regular lessons a week. Only in Chile do a greater proportion of 15-year-olds spend this much time in regular lessons a week. On average across the OECD, performance in maths is positively associated with each additional hour of regular lessons per week, but this is only up to 27 hours per week (OECD, 2023[10]).
The large number of qualifications students pursue and learning time that this takes might limit space for crucial activities like career education and guidance or learning about online safety. To an extent, such broader learning is assessed in Northern Ireland for example, via the Learning for Life and Work GCSE. However, students reported giving less priority to these qualifications than their main subject-specific GCSEs, even when they thought the learning had inherent value. Of interest for policymakers in Northern Ireland: 15-year-olds in Northern Ireland are among those in the OECD most likely to agree that school has done little to prepare them for adult life when they leave school (57%) (compared with OECD average of 49%).
More career discoveries [are] needed to help provide info for our future careers. (Quote from a student)
It is also notable that 15-year-olds in Northern Ireland typically engage with fewer activities for career development than their peers in other systems. In 2022, PISA asked 15-year-olds about the information seeking activities they engaged with regarding their future career. For many activities, the share of young people in Northern Ireland undertaking such activities is below the OECD average (Table A B.1.).
4.3.2. Current applied qualifications do not always provide meaningful exposure to vocational pathways
Across OECD countries, 37% of 15-19-year-olds in upper secondary education are enrolled in vocational programmes (OECD, 2020[49]). Vocational programmes can give students hands-on experience of practical skills and expose them to various career options. Vocational education and workplace learning can be particularly valuable and motivating for students who find traditional academic learning less engaging or interesting (Musset, 2019[50]).
In Northern Ireland, while there is no structured vocational programme in Key Stage 4, the Entitlement Framework ensures that students have access to “applied” qualifications (NI Dept of Education, 2017[51]). Applied qualifications include more occupationally specific qualifications like BTECs and Cambridge Technicals (e.g. Health and Social Care) and broader occupational qualifications like CCEA Occupational Studies and Learning for Life and Work that develop employability, career awareness and provide an introduction to vocational learning. In 2023/24, 20% of Year 12 (age 16) qualification entries were for non‑GCSE (applied) qualifications. On average, students take 1.8 non-GCSE qualifications, and some may take as many as 11.5
In workshops with the OECD, school leaders and teachers identified two main challenges with the applied qualifications. First, some students are ready to take vocational subjects at a more challenging level. Some students are already exposed to occupational areas such as car mechanics, agriculture or engineering, either through part-time work, personal interest or at home. School leaders felt that these students would be more engaged by more specialised vocational learning, particularly if it was closely aligned or integrated with the workplace. Second, school leaders identified that some students were taking applied qualifications, particularly those more focussed on personal development and effectiveness, because other qualifications were not accessible. This includes students with Special Education Needs (SEN). School teachers and principals indicated that the content of these courses is not necessarily motivating or engaging for such students but are more achievable than GCSEs.
Many of my students are skilled workers at 15/16-years-old but are forced through qualifications that don’t enhance their skills/knowledge. (Quote from a school leader)
Discussions with school leaders, teachers and students reveal an appetite for vocational education at more advanced levels in Key Stage 4. Stakeholders also indicated that the largely academic focus of Key Stage 4 can be disengaging for some students. The current policy ambition to extend compulsory education to 18 makes the need to provide engaging and stimulating options for all students at this stage even more acute.
Northern Ireland can consider the following policy options so that learning and assessment in English and maths in Key Stage 4 better supports pathways for all students to prepare for post-16 education and future career readiness.
4.4.1. Reduce the assessment load at Key Stage 4 to focus on core maths and English skills
Northern Ireland is already taking steps to address the density of learning in Key Stage 4. In March 2026, it was announced that GCSEs will include less content where possible, to allow for deeper learning and secure understanding within each subject (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[52]). Revised GCSE qualifications are due to be taught from September 2029 and first awarded in 2031 (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[53]). However, another reason why students in Northern Ireland experience high assessment workload in Key Stage 4 is the number of subjects, with students typically studying around 8-10 subjects assessed as high-stakes qualifications. Such dense learning programmes can limit the time and space for developing key maths and English skills, especially for students with lower skills at the start of Key Stage 4 who require more focussed and concentrated learning to reach expected levels. Moreover, many subjects/qualifications taken by students are not continued in post-16 study (where the range of subjects studied drops considerably).
A key reason cited by many stakeholders for retaining high-stakes qualifications at 16 in in Northern Ireland is their role for higher education entry. However, most countries defer these kinds of high-stakes assessment and certification until the end of upper secondary, when students are around age 18/19. Deferring high-stakes assessment to the end of upper secondary means that judgements about entrance to higher education can be based on the skills and knowledge have developed over the full school phase. It is also worth noting that higher education institutions in the United Kingdom accept many international students based on certification and examination results from the end of upper secondary alone. In the future, Northern Ireland might consider reducing the breadth of subjects most students are expected to study at 16 to emphasise deeper learning. It need not be necessary for all subject learning at Key Stage 4 to be assessed via high-stakes assessment, particularly in a context where the country is looking to introduce an expectation for all students to remain in education until 18. With less of a focus on high-stakes assessment at 14-16, schools and teachers would have more scope to fill in gaps in student learning where these exist and support deeper learning without the shadow of assessment requirements. For students who start Key Stage 4 with weaker skills, this could look like spending more time on English and maths skills development, without contending with assessment in their other subject areas.
4.4.2. Revisit the approach to “Entitlement” to focus on what a student experiences
The Entitlement Framework focusses on what schools offer rather than what students experience. Northern Ireland could consider shifting the policy to focus on the breadth and coverage of learning that students experience. At present, navigating a vast open market of qualifications and making decisions about a) what to offer and b) how students should build their programmes based on this offer, is a challenging and resource-intensive task that not all schools are equipped to deal with. For example, this could include:
A national discussion / policy consultation around what learning all students at Key Stage 4 ought to engage with.
Developing greater support and guidance for schools on structuring students’ learning programmes to maximise coherence and cross-curricular literacy and numeracy skills consolidation (see Policy Issue 1).
Setting out which courses are mandatory or optional for students. This is particularly important if there were to be less of a focus on qualifications at age 16, so that students still cover the necessary subject-specific content and learning as preparation for post-16 education.
The approaches set out above would bring Northern Ireland more in line with many other OECD systems, where there is a clear identification of which subjects all students should take (i.e. which subjects are mandatory or compulsory) and which subjects students should be able to choose from. For example, in British Columbia (Canada), there is a framework for compulsory and optional learning that guides students to engage with all learning areas, with some scope for student choice over the level of learning and the specific course offer that suits them best (Box 3).
Students in British Columbia are required to take a wide range of subjects, including subjects that develop competencies and enable experiences in areas such as career education and indigenous‑focussed learning. To leave upper secondary school with the “Dogwood Diploma” students need to earn a minimum of 80 credits. Of these, at least 16 credits must be at the Grade 12 level. Credits are required from a range of compulsory subjects, including Career-Life Education and Career‑Life Connections, Physical and Health Education (at Grade 10 level), Science (at Grade 11 level), Social Studies (at Grade 11 level), Math (at Grade 11 level), Language Arts (at Grade 12 level), Arts Education and/or Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (at Grade 10 level). A minimum number of credits must come from “indigenous-focussed” courses. In addition, students must also complete the Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment, the Grade 10 Literacy Assessment and the Grade 12 Literacy Assessment.
Source: British Columbia (n.d.[54]), Certificates of Graduation, https://alpha.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/support/graduation (accessed 23 March 2023).
4.4.3. Ensure that subjects and qualifications are up-to-date and fit-for-purpose
In the short term at least, qualifications will continue to play an important role in Key Stage 4. In this context, Northern Ireland could consider introducing a lighter update process so that GCSEs can be updated more readily to reflect changing needs in a discipline or sector. This could involve simplified approval processes for content updates, particularly in rapidly evolving fields like technology, science, and vocational subjects. Subject curricula could also include learning outcomes related to “emerging technologies” or “changing behaviours”, providing flexibility for teachers to adapt to current affairs and global developments.
← 1. Five or more GCSEs (or equivalents) at Grades A*-C including English and maths. Data provided by the Department of Education based on analysis of Exams Database.
← 2. Data provided by the Department of Education based on analysis of Exams Databases.
← 3. Data provided to the OECD by the Department of Education from the Department of Education Exams Database.
← 4. Data provided to the OECD by the Department of Education from the Department of Education Exams Database.
← 5. Data provided by the Department of Education based on analysis of Exams Databases.