Between April 2020 and March 2021, according to new statistics issued by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, only 53 percent of learners in Essex passed their driving test. However, that was an increase from 47.1 percent the previous year.
In addition, the number of tests performed in 2020/21 was significantly lower than in prior years as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown.
Just under 8,000 tests were performed in Essex throughout the course of the previous year, a decrease from more than 33,000 tests performed in the year before.
According to the data, 55.9 percent of men in the county passed between April 2020 and March of this year, compared to 50.4 percent of women who passed within the same time period.
Six out of ten drivers passed the test at the Clacton site in the previous year, making it the most successful site in the country.
In Colchester, more than half of drivers passed their driving tests.
Test results in Great Britain reached a record 50 percent pass rate in 2020-21, with the ratio reaching 59 percent between January and March of this year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The number of tests performed decreased to 437,000 in 2020-21 from 1.6 million the year before.
During the lockdown, only key workers who were required to drive for their jobs were permitted to take driving tests; this may possibly account for the greater pass rate during these months, as the candidates would have been extremely motivated to succeed.
