Tony Blair congratulated pupils and staff at
Dunraven School, London |
The
GCSE-level results achieved by England's teenagers have shown their
biggest improvement for more than a decade, the government says.
The provisional figures for 2005 show that 55.7% attained the
equivalent of at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C.
This was two percentage points more than in 2004 - meeting the
government's annual target for the first time.
On the new benchmark, which includes those getting English and
maths GCSEs, the figure was 44.1%, up 1.4 points.
Girls continued to outperform boys: 60.8% getting the better
GCSE-level results against 50.8%.
The official statistics now include GCSEs, GNVQs and a range of
other equivalent vocational qualifications.
A warning note from government statisticians says an unusually
high volume of GNVQ results was missing from the data supplied by
the exam boards this year.
They stress the provisional nature of the figures, which will be
confirmed only when the school-by-school statistics - the "league
tables" - are published, which is usually in January.
The figures were released as the BBC published statistics
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act on the proportion of
pupils whose five good GCSE-level qualifications include English and
maths GCSEs.
 |
biggest rise in recent years has been in
vocational qualifications
full GCSE results account for 51 points in the
total 55.7%
short courses and other qualifications account
for 4.7
state schools total: 53.6%
independent schools: 82.6%
Source: DfES |
This is the new
benchmark being promoted by the government.
These showed that in one in six of the schools that had better
overall results in 2004 than in 2001, English and maths attainment
was actually worse.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, visiting a successful school in
London, said that, looked at nationally, the improvement trend "more
or less follows the same path" on either measure.
He added: "I think overall probably it is fairly marginal to the
performance of the system."
This is the first time the government has met its target for an
annual increase of two percentage points in the five A*-C rate.
It has also been aiming to have 60% of 16-year-olds achieving
that level of success by 2008.
A-levels
Of the 149 local authorities reporting results this year, they
rose in 124.
The percentage of pupils achieving the equivalent of five A*-C
ranges from 35.8 to 79.2.
The A and AS-level results showed the average point score per
candidate was 273.7, up from 269.2 last year.
But there was a slight drop in the number who passed at least two
A-levels: 91.9% compared with 92% last year.
Nine-point-two per cent of A-level candidates achieved three or
more A grades.
Education
Secretary Ruth Kelly said the results were "a tremendous
achievement".
"We still face a number of challenges - particularly in raising
the attainment of some of our lowest achievers."
The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John
Dunford, said: "League tables only report what they are designed to
measure and schools adapt their policies accordingly.
"When league tables put more emphasis on English and mathematics,
so will schools."
But they had assumed far too much importance and it was time they
were ended, he added.
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They are the nearest thing to an objective measure that
parents have 
