Another year of record GCSE results

Britain's teenagers have scored record GCSEs results again, with two thirds of exams awarded a good grade.

But there was a drop in the number of English entries being awarded at least a C, and the number of pupils taking a foreign language continued its steady decline.

Overall, 21.6 per cent of grades were awarded an A+ or A, an increase of 0.9 percentage points on last year.

More than 67.1 per cent of entries were at grades A+-C, up from 65.7 per cent last summer, an increase of 1.4 percentage points. The overall pass rate at A+-G rose to 98.6 per cent from 98.4 per cent last year.

The rises came despite the number of entries dipping again this year - there were more than 5.46 million entries this year, compared with 5.66 million last year.

The Joint Council for Qualifications which published the national GCSE results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the fall was in line with the reduction in the number of 16 year olds.

English results fell this year, 62.7 per cent of entries were awarded at least a C grade, down 0.2 per cent from 62.9 per cent last year. But the proportion of maths entries scoring A+-C rose 0.9 per cent to 57.2 per cent, from 56.3 per cent last year.

There was an increase in the number of pupils taking separate exams in biology, chemistry and physics, while the number taking a single science GCSE has fallen.

Modern languages were again casualties, as the numbers of pupils taking French or German slumped for the seventh year. The slump follows the government's controversial decision to make modern foreign language optional after the age of 14.

JCQ director Jim Sinclair said: "This is a day of celebration for students and their teachers. There has been good performance overall across most subjects including mathematics and languages. It is also reassuring to see increased entry to the separate sciences. The core subjects of English, mathematics and science continue to dominate and account for almost half of the full course entry."