PUPILS across Greater Manchester were today celebrating record GCSE results.
A number of schools and local authorities said pupils had achieved their highest-ever results and some pointed to significant improvements on last year.
In Oldham, where more than 3,200 students took exams this summer, some 59 per cent got at least five A* to C passes - compared with 55 per cent last year.
Hugh McDonald, the councillor responsible for the area's schools, said: "These results are brilliant news for the borough's secondary schools. A four per cent increase in one year is a massive leap forwards. This is a positive reflection of the hard work of pupils, high quality teaching and the close partnership between the council and schools."
Individual schools also highlighted the results of their pupils.
There was a massive boost in results at The Albion School in Salford as 52 per cent of pupils scored five good grades compared with 29 per cent previously.
Headteacher Steve Aveyard said: "We have smashed our targets and have more than doubled our results in the last two years. We are very proud of what has been achieved here in such a relatively short time."
Figures
And at the independent Manchester Grammar School, pupils also received record results. Every pupil got five A*-C grades and around 87 per cent of all grades were As, up 1 per cent up on last year.
Nationally more than 600,000 children were receiving GCSE grades. Official figures showed an improvement with 63.3 per cent of students getting grade C or above compared with 62.4 per cent last year.
There was a slight dip in the overall pass mark which remained high at 98 per cent and the number of students passing English, maths and science also rose.
In order to counter the criticism that too many students took "easy courses" education officials have adopted a new measurement which focuses on students' performance in English and maths.
The system looks at the number of students getting good (A*-C) grades in English and maths along with their top three other subjects.
Early indications show schools also boosted their performance in this category. In Oldham 40 per cent of pupils reached this benchmark compared to 35 per cent previously.
New laws this year mean all councils must contact all students who sit GCSEs to offer them college places or other training.
Speaking as the results were released today, education minister Jim Knight said he believed schools were teaching the right mix of the 3Rs along with relevant new subjects.
He said: "We expect an increasingly broad range of pupils to meet the demanding standards set at GCSE. This is a marked departure from the days of `O' Level when thousands of young people were simply written off at 14."
See next Wednesday's MEN for a GCSE supplement with all local results.
Are exams getting easier? Have your say.
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dessie, manchester (23/08/2007 at 10:49)
Peter (23/08/2007 at 12:35)
Mininture microphones, camera, mates on the internet using Wikipedia to relay all the answers back to them.
Ms D, Manchester (23/08/2007 at 13:50)
Debbie Hughes (23/08/2007 at 16:27)
Giles (23/08/2007 at 16:44)
They shouldn't just get rewarded for hard work, dear oh Lord.
In the real world it is hard work and ability that allows a man to get on. Saying that you worked hard shouldn't entitle anyone to the top awards.
With these kind of results all of them should be off to Oxbridge. They are getting easier, much easier.
It doesn't do as it will only mislead the blighters into having a deluded view of their brightness and they will get found out in the real world as has been reported this week whereby most can't string a sentence together, are arithmetically inept and are shirkers.
swinny, salford (23/08/2007 at 17:03)
Karen Swindells
razza, Sale (23/08/2007 at 19:13)
It annoys me greatly that people think GCSEs are getting easier ... why dont they try doing 10 exams, including subjects that they may detest, with teachers who in some case have a complete lack of intellectual prowess.
Moreover, many people dont realise the complete lack of common sense shown by some exam boards, who accept ludicrous answers, but mark more advanced answers wrong.
Furthermore, even if exams are getting easier, many of the requirements for university courses are getting harder ... with medicine being the most obvious example.
Whilst it may be getting easier to pass exams, people shouldnt underestimate the difficulty for students to get the A* grade or the top 5s.
I hope people will stop knocking us, and congratulations to everyone who got their gcse grades today!
debbs, Manchester (23/08/2007 at 21:02)
I feel these kids should be congratulated for their hard work and not criticized.
I wonder how many of the adults who complain 'how easy GCSE's are' , would actually be able to sit these exams and pass them themselves ? - Probably not many !
Colin W, Abroad (24/08/2007 at 09:18)
Admittedly children can only take the exams they are given, but with the rest of Europe laughing at the triviality of the UK education system.. especially compared with Sweden and Finland (which are touch), its only a metter of time before UK children become unemployable outside the sceptic Ilse
The Catcher, In the Rye (24/08/2007 at 11:37)
The fact is that the level of spelling and grammar required has been reduced. The kids may have learned the facts but their ability to write them down coherently has dimished.
Now, no more bragging parents thank you.
Giles (24/08/2007 at 15:36)
Black Flag (24/08/2007 at 16:55)
elena (24/08/2007 at 17:21)
I got 5A*s and 5As.
Do you realise how insulting it is to hear that when I've just done what I feel is amazingly on my GCSE's. You may sit there and complain, but I actually went and sat my exams!
One day we're told that GCSEs and too easy. Then we are told that the government is planning to make them easier because not enough people are passing.
Then we get people like you saying that even if we do work hard for two years, do all the required pieces of coursework and perform well in the exams it still means nothing because generalising idiots like you will sit down at their computer and order that no one may brag because however well their child does in the exams, according to you they are still stupid.
Mrs McG, Exeter (24/08/2007 at 19:33)
Colin W, Abroad (25/08/2007 at 07:53)
I will and have sat the GCSEs in 2005 as a bet with a friend who's daughter got good grades in her GCSEs. I took my original history O Level in 1982 and got a B grade. It was then a question of writing 5 essays in 2 hours and was quite touch in terms of time and the amount of knowledge you had to know - no trivial course work. This time I did no revision, 3 weeks refresher studying on European history and guess what an A*. Kind of blows your theory out of the water doesnt it. Next argument please ....
Antony (26/08/2007 at 18:42)
Why can't you accept that our generation is just more intelligent, generally, than yours, and for sure, the next generation will be more intelligent than mine.
The only reason you are making these comments is because you're bitter and are jealous of our success.
I would like to try some of your O level papers, such as Maths, and you should sample how difficult and complex our Maths is today; we would certainly see how wrong you are then.
Colin W, Abroad (27/08/2007 at 06:29)
Joey, Ashton under Lyne, (27/08/2007 at 11:12)
Why can't you accept that our generation is just more intelligent, generally, than yours, and for sure, the next generation will be more intelligent than mine.
A lot of people confuse Intelligence with Educated these terms are in most cases mutually exclusive.
Kate A (27/08/2007 at 16:20)
May I point out to you that on the 24/08/2007 at 11:37, you forgot to start a sentance with a capital letter. If you were to do that in a GCSE paper you would not get above a D! Whereas my dad took an O level in English, where he managed to spell English wrong: yet he still got a B. Standards must be slipping!
But so what if our generation can't spell or punctuate. We have computers, that do that for us. If you had it your way we would still be writing with quills.
In addition, the older members of this 'debate' appear to have forgotten what O levels were. Forgive me if I am wrong, but didn't O levels comprised of GCE's and GSE's? One was for brighter students; the other for those 'less able'. Maybe this is why there is such a difference in the results?
P.S In sport world records are broken year in, year out. This doesn't mean, for example, that the 100 metres is getting shorter.
Antony (27/08/2007 at 18:17)
Give the average secondary school leaver of your generation one of our GCSE Maths exams; i doubt they could answer many questions.
Another point, the way you people keep devaluing the GCSEs suggests that you would prefer that nobody passed them, so even more people had no qualifications, so even more people can live off the taxpayer.
Is it any wonder so many people leave school knowing nothing, can't get a job, then have to turn to crime and benefits for the rest of their lives; because people like you suggest that GCSEs are good for nothing.
I don't know what your problem is, but you've got issues if all you can do is criticise the efforts of sixteen year olds. It seems that we can do nothing to please anyone.
Colin W, Abroad (28/08/2007 at 05:26)
Colin W, Abroad (28/08/2007 at 09:01)
Colin W, Abroad (28/08/2007 at 09:03)
Colin W, Abroad (28/08/2007 at 09:06)
Colin W, Abroad (28/08/2007 at 09:09)