Almost half of schools in north-east Essex have refused to release their results to this newspaper. The Essex NUT has described the situation as “surprising”.

Nine out of 21 schools in the region have not released the benchmark figure of the percentage of students achieving at least a grade four in English and maths to the East Anglian Daily Times.

At least half the schools are academies or independent schools.

• See our live Essex GCSE coverage here.

Despite repeated requests, the schools are refusing to supply results. In contrast, almost all schools in Suffolk have given results, and there is no apparent issue with schools providing data elsewhere across the country.

Overall, UK GCSE pass rates have fallen this year amid the biggest shake-up of exams in a generation.

Today’s figures show that across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the proportion of entries scoring at least an A grade - or a 7 under the new system - has fallen by 0.5 percentage points to 20% compared to last summer, while the percentage gaining a C or above - or a 4 under the new system - is down 0.6 percentage points to 66.3%.

An Essex County Council spokesman said he was not aware of any issues with schools. The authority will issue Essex results later today.

Jerry Glazier, NUT general secretary in Essex, also said he was not aware of any issues with schools providing results in the county.

He said: “I am surprised, since it’s been common practice in recent history for schools to publicise in big banners their exam results.”