GCSE pass rate falls

Thousands more teenagers left school without GCSEs this year as results show the Government is likely to miss key education targets.

The results come only days after primary school tests showed that improvement in performance among 11-year-olds has also stalled, despite millions of pounds being spent on upgrading teaching of the three Rs.

The GCSE results suggest that in secondary schools, as in primaries, the Government faces a serious challenge to its education reforms. Schools appear to have hit a ceiling which will not be breached unless standards among the very poorestperforming youngsters are improved.

The pass rate at the top four grades of A* to C has risen by only 0.2 per cent to 58.1 per cent of entries - a quarter of last year's improvement. The rise at A* and A grades was marginally higher at 0.3 per cent.

But for the first time since 1997, the proportion of entries getting any grade of pass, from A* to G, actually fell, from 97.9 per cent to 97.6 per cent.

It is now almost certain that Education Secretary Charles Clarke will miss targets set by the Treasury in return for massive increases in education spending - that the proportion of pupils achieving at least five top grades should rise by two per cent each year.

Teachers' leaders and political opponents said that by setting targets for the number of children achieving top grades, ministers had encouraged teachers to ignore less bright pupils.

Today Mr Clarke said he "applauds these good results". He added: "I remain confident our secondary school reforms will help drive up standards even higher at GCSE in the future," and pointed to recent improved test results at age 14 as the source of his optimism.

But shadow education secretary Damian Green said the results show "the gap between the best and the worst is widening under Labour".

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said last year's statistics showed that despite pupils with strings of A* grades, one in four 15-year-olds did not even attempt a GCSE in English, maths, science or a modern foreign language, while only 40 per cent of those who did got a good grade in each.

This year, entries in maths and French fell again. Entries remained the same in German, but it was replaced in the top 10 most popular subjects by religious studies, which some would claim is easier.

The proportion of passes in maths at C grade or above fell by 1.1 per cent. David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "It is simply not possible to work on the assumption that results will improve year on year. They have clearly hit a ceiling."

Professor Alan Smithers of Liverpool University said secondary school results showed a clear parallel with the stalled improvement in primary schools, and called for "a set of vocational qualifications which are genuinely credible with employers, and which will offer nonacademic youngsters something to strive for".