A-level pass rate jumps 5%

A-level pass rates showed their biggest rise for more than a decade today, prompting speculation that the academic "gold standard" will soon become the exam that no one can fail.

Overall passes jumped five per cent to 94.3 per cent of entries - a leap more than twice as high as in any previous year. A-grade passes were also up, to more than one in five of all entries.

If this year's rate of improvement is maintained, it will take just two years before every A-level entry is credited with a pass.

Former chief schools inspector Chris Woodhead said today's results demonstrated the " corruption" of the exams system. "The philosophy that all must have prizes is making a mockery of the A-level exam," he said.

But exam boards questioned whether there would be anything wrong with a 100 per cent pass rate. John Milner, of the Joint Council for General Qualifications (JCGQ), said: "We are talking about rewarding achievement. The question is how we can drive out failure and make the most of the abilities of our students."

The boards said standards had been maintained, while ministers urged critics not to denigrate the achievement of pupils.

The Government hailed today's results as proof of the success of its secondary school reforms, including the introduction of the much-criticised AS-level exam. Schools standards minister David Miliband said: "Year on year, we get the same criticism but this year we can see conclusively that standards of teaching and learning are better than ever."

Today's figures show a 25 per cent increase in the take-up of AS-levels, introduced to broaden studies in the first year of the sixth form but criticised for condemning teenagers to an exam treadmill. At the same time, there was a 50,000 fall in A-level entries.

The Government claimed "weaker" candidates were being "weeded out" halfway through the sixth form.

Instead of pursuing A-levels, which they might fail, they were taking more AS-levels in their second year. In the process-many were getting enough exam points for university places.

The A-level pass rate had risen, Government sources said, because only the strongest candidates were taking the exam. But that argument failed to convince critics, who saw the 20th annual increase in the pass rate as further proof that standards had been "dumbed down".

Ruth Lea, of the Institute of Directors, said: "These results are little short of a tragedy. We have said year after year that the A-level system is being changed to accommodate a goal of mass university entry. The hurdles students have to jump have been lowered. I wish the Government would admit what is obvious."

The Government wants 50 per cent of young people to go to university by 2010. Ministers envisage most sixth formers studying four or five AS-levels in their first year, and taking three subjects on to A-level. But today's results suggest many are taking only two A-levels, completing their studies with extra AS-levels.

The JCGQ admitted today that AS-levels represented less than half an A-level in academic difficulty, even though the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service gave them that value.

Professor Alan Smithers, adviser to the House of Commons Education Select Committee, said it seemed some sixth formers were using that mismatch to find an "easy" way to gain the UCAS points for a university place.

"This appears to be an unintended result of reforms. That will make it easier for the Government to hit its higher education targets, but the university system will become even more polarised."