Rocketing pass rates 'prove dumbing-down of A-levels'

Exam pass rates over the past two decades prove that A-levels have been "dumbed down", academics claimed today as the Conservatives announced plans to overhaul school league tables.

The proportion of pupils who pass A-levels has risen from 78 per cent in 1990 to almost 97 per cent last year, while the number who pass the international baccalaureate (IB) has remained almost constant.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said that proved A-levels were now easier.

When 250,000 A-level students receive their results on Thursday, the pass rate and the proportion receiving top grades are expected to rise for the 27th consecutive year.

From 2000 onwards, sixth-formers have been able to re-sit individual units in an effort to improve their grades.

Since then, the A-level pass rate has leapt from 89.8 per cent to 94.3 per cent, with a similar rise in the proportion of A-grades awarded.

The results provoked a national grading crisis that led to thousands of papers being re-marked and contributed to the resignation of Estelle Morris as Education Secretary.

Professor Smithers said: "It's becoming easier to get the top grades.

"In 1990, the IB and the A-levels were about the same in terms of percentage pass rate. There's now a difference of 20 percentage points."

He said there had been rows at several private schools that switched to the IB after pupils who had been expected to get straight As struggled to pass the more difficult IB.

Ministers insisted the improvement was due to pupils' hard work and said changes in assessment mechanisms over the period made the two systems impossible to compare.

But a survey of 150 A-level teachers by the thinktank Civitas revealed none thought the rising pass rate was due to pupils getting brighter.

The Conservatives also accused the Government of "dumbing down" exams as the party unveiled proposals to toughen up the education system. Plans on the table include giving more points on league tables for "hard" subjects such as maths and physics, stripping vocational qualifications and making schools track the progress of their graduates.

Current league tables have been heavily criticised because practical qualifications such as cake decoration, pottery and flower arranging are given equivalent value to A-levels.

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove told the Sunday Telegraph that Labour's "micromanaging of exams" had "dumbed down" the system.