A-level figures do not add up to what we think

There are lies, damned lies and A-level statistics. Perhaps the word "lies" is too strong but the figures for this year's A-level results are at first sight misleading.

A 4.5 per cent rise in the pass rate should be either a sign of the biggest rise in standards in state education or, if you are from the Institute of Directors, which has consistently claimed the exam is getting easier, the most gross example of "grade inflation".

It is neither. What we are witnessing is a fundamental change in the examination system, with A-levels becoming the preserve of brighter students, and those who before would have struggled to pass in a subject dropping it and opting for an extra AS-level.

A 47,500 cut in the number of entries for A-level this year means that the number of young people who passed the exam is only the same as last year, despite the rise in the percentage pass rate from 89.8 per cent to 94.3 per cent.

Much of the fall in entries can be explained by students switching to another AS-level after dropping subjects they had failed to shine in when taking the new exam. The number of AS-level entries went up by just over 20,000 this year.

John Milner, convenor of the Joint Council for General Qualifications, the body that represents all exam boards, said the system of A/AS-level gave teachers an opportunity "to drive out failure in the system" by persuading pupils unlikely to obtain an A-level pass to seek other qualifications, an extra AS-level or a new vocational qualification.

John Guy, principal of Farnborough sixth-Form College, said A-levels still represented a "high stakes" exam. "What is happening is that at the end of the first year when they have taken their AS-levels they are looking at their choices and deciding what is right for them. There are many universities who will accept youngsters with good AS-levels and there are others who will want significant numbers of A-level passes to meet their requirements. It is about offering the right choices to individuals."

The first results from the new system also showed a dramatic widening of the gap between boys' and girls' performance in A grades, trebling from 0.8 per cent to 2.6 per cent. The system with its emphasis on coursework and modules done in term time instead of the sudden-death end-of-term exam is said to be more "girl friendly" as girls approach their work more methodically.

The results also showed a switch from traditional subjects such as maths (the number of candidates dropped by more than 12,000, largely due to students ditching the subject after a tough AS-level paper last year which led to a high failure rate) to a range of fringe subjects, such as media studies and psychology.