SECONDARY schools should face fines if students fail to achieve at least a C at GCSE in English and maths, a think tank has said.

Funds raised from this "re-sit levy" should be handed to further education (FE) colleges, who are dealing with large numbers of young people re-taking these key qualifications, according to the Policy Exchange.

In a new paper, the right-wing think tank argued that FE colleges are already facing funding pressures, and take on more students who received below a D in their maths or English GCSEs than schools and sixth-form colleges.

This burden is growing in the wake of government reforms which require teenagers who fail to score at least a C at GCSE in English or maths to continue studying the subject and re-take qualifications, it says.

Headteachers warned that introducing a levy would be an "own goal".

The Policy Exchange document claims that FE colleges are being left to deal with a far greater proportion of students re-sitting GCSE maths and English than schools and sixth-form colleges.

It calculates that in 2013, nearly five times more students re-took English at an FE college than re-took the exam at a school (100,239 students compared to 20,544) while 110,811 students re-sat maths at an FE college compared to 27,579 who re-sat it at school.

Around 31 per cent of those re-entered for GCSE English at an FE college scored at least a C in their re-sit, compared to 38 per cent of those at school.

In maths, 36 per cent of those re-taking a GCSE in the subject at an FE college achieved an A*-C grade, compared to 35 per cent of those at school.

The think tank goes on to argue that FE colleges require more cash to cope with demand, claiming that, at present, these institutions receive £4,000 for a 16-17-year-old and £3,300 to teach a full time qualification - and this does not include funding for remedial English and maths teaching.

The Department for Education said that every pupil who does not get at least a C in maths and English GCSE at age 16 is allocated an additional £480 per subject, although this funding is not ring-fenced for those qualifications.

To read the full story, click here.