There is a call for the Department for Education (DfE) to mandate regular changes to GCSE English set-text lists and ensure texts reflect gender balance and societal diversity. This follows a report from the educational charity End Sexism in Schools, which revealed a significant lack of diversity in the books studied by students.
The 2025 report, titled 'Manopolies', found that 76% of students studied 'An Inspector Calls' by JB Priestley for their modern text. For 19th-century novels, 93% of students studied either Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' or Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. The report also stated that only 5% of students in England and Wales studied a female-authored text at GCSE.
The DfE is currently undertaking a curriculum renewal for GCSE English. It is suggested that schools are disincentivised from changing texts due to associated costs and additional work. Exam boards are also reportedly reluctant to remove popular texts due to potential commercial and developmental disadvantages.
The National Literacy Trust designated 2026 as the National Year of Reading, noting a shift in the percentage of eight-to-18-year-olds who enjoy reading in their free time, rising from a 2025 low of 32.7% to 36.1%.