GCSE results
The proportion of students receiving top grades in their GCSEs has risen by one of the biggest margins on record.
As teenagers opened their results on Thursday, figures showed that nearly one in five - 19.1 per cent - of grades awarded were either A or A*.
This is a rise of 0.7 percentage points on last year, and the second biggest increase since the A* was introduced in 1994.
The proportion of exams awarded at least a grade C also rose sharply - by 1.2 percentage points to 62.4 per cent.
Stakeholder Response: NUT
Commenting on the GCSE results Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the NUT, said: "The results are a real cause for celebration.
"The fact that young people have done so well in English and mathematics rebuts ill-informed criticism from groups such as the CBI.
"Within that overall welcome picture there is the depressing spectre of a massive drop in entries for modern foreign languages and a decline in geography and design and technology.
"French, German and Spanish and geography are world subjects which have helped promote
"Given Britain’s lead in innovative design, the drop in entries for design and technology also gives cause for concern.
"The government must conduct a serious review of its stance on modern languages in the Key Stage 4 curriculum and examine how it should be promoting these subjects rather than presiding their decline."
Stakeholder Response: ATL
ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: "All too often the image of today’s youngsters is blackened by the misbehaviour of a minority.
"But today’s GCSE results show we have a nation of hard working, highly ambitious and responsible young people.
"However, far too many students leave school at 16 without the skills or abilities to approach the rest of their lives with ambition and confidence.
"And the current school curriculum is not helping as it demotivates and demoralises too many students.
"Instead, we need to create an education system which encourages real learning and skills development, and moves away from a target culture which promotes teaching purely to pass tests.
"Employers want young people who can think on their feet, are good at research, innovative, and good at team working.
"So we need some fundamental and quick changes if we are to equip today’s generation for life in the 21st century."
ASCL general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "Schools are working hard to improve results in maths and English in anticipation of their inclusion in the five A-C league tables. This is already yielding improvements in pass rates.
"Entries for modern foreign language GCSEs are in free fall and this is a major concern. Fourteen year-olds are putting themselves at a disadvantage in the job market by giving up modern languages.
"The reduced numbers mean that many schools are now shedding modern language teachers.
"I fear we have passed the point of no return for language GCSEs.
"The short-term answer is not to return to compulsory foreign languages for 14 and 15 year-olds but, in the longer term, to make languages a mandatory part of a wider Tomlinson-style diploma.
"Schools need to find new ways of providing language lessons, other than the two-year GCSE course. We cannot wait nine years until the benefits of the primary school foreign language initiative are seen at GCSE.
"The increases in religious studies, PE and citizenship short courses suggest that schools are seeking to boost their league table position by entering students for more exams.
"It is not in the interest of young people for league tables to drive an increase in entries. Young people are taking far too many examinations at 16, 17 and 18.
"This needs to be reduced by using chartered assessors to grade in-course work, as advocated by ASCL and adopted in the Tomlinson report.
"Chartered assessors are senior teachers externally accredited to carry out internal assessment to external standards.
"The rises in the A*-C achievement and in grades A*-A are cause for congratulations for students and teachers.
"There is no evidence whatsoever that standards are falling. Indeed, it would be cause for concern if pass rates were not increasing, with substantial government investment in schools, improved teaching and students working harder than ever."
Stakeholder Response: NASUWT
Commenting in advance of the publication of the GCSE results, Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, said: "There is no such thing as an easy option in public examinations.
"When the results are published, pupils and teachers should be given full and unequivocal credit for their hard work and achievements.
"They should celebrate their success and ignore the serial detractors of educational achievement who invariably emerge at this time of year.
"No doubt a particular area of interest in the results this year will be the performance of pupils at academy schools.
"Whilst there is considerable opposition to academies, including from NASUWT, the political debate surrounding the programme must not be allowed to overshadow the efforts of the pupils and teachers who work in them. Their hard work is of equal merit and deserves equal credit."
Stakeholder Response: AQA
Dr. Mike Creswell of the AQA told ePolitix.com: "With the publication of the GCSE results for 2006, it is timely to look at the changes in outcomes over the recent past and reflect upon what they tell us about the performance of our young people.
"Each year, AQA and the other awarding bodies set GCSE standards by following procedures which have been independently acknowledged by an international study to be among the best in the world and are designed to ensure that standards do not change.
"These procedures are specified by government regulators (QCA in
"These scrutinies, and other independent observers, all report that the procedures are closely followed and that the judgements of the quality of candidates’ work which they involve are made with great care and skill.
"Despite this independent verification that the procedures used to maintain standards in GCSE examinations are excellent, national pass rates for the top grades have increased significantly.
"In the last 10 years, the overall Grade A rate has gone from 13 per cent in 1995 to 19 per cent in 2006. For Grade C, the pass rate was 53 per cent in 1995 and is 62 per cent in 2006.
"Some commentators argue that these increases are so large that the examinations must have become easier.
"This is speculation, based upon the dubious assumptions that schools have made no improvements in the last 10 years and that young people today cannot really be achieving more that those of 10 years ago.
"There is no independent evidence for these assumptions. In fact, there is good reason to believe that young people now work harder than ever and that recent years have seen schools striving harder than ever to improve the quality of the education which they provide.
"So what do the recent increases in GCSE pass rates actually mean for individual 16-year-olds?
"In 1995, the average 16-year-old achieved 1 Grade A and 4 or 5 Grade Cs.
In 2006, the average 16-year-old achieved 1 or 2 Grade As and 5 Grade Cs.
"Looked at in this way, the improvement in GCSE results over a ten year period is well within what can reasonably be expected of our school system and not evidence which supports the notion that GCSE standards have changed in recent years.
"Young people, employers and the nation at large can have complete confidence in GCSE standards. The improving results reflect the continuing improvement of our schools and the hard work of our young people. We should celebrate their achievement."
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