JUST over half of Greater Manchester's secondary schools are keeping up with GCSE improvements, government league tables have revealed.

Nationally half of all youngsters are reaching the benchmark figure of five or more A* to C grade GCSEs - an increase of 0.8 per cent.

And in Greater Manchester 92 of the region's 167 state schools - 55 per cent - matched or exceeded the national trend.

The greatest year-on-year improvement by an education authority was in Bolton, where the 45 per cent of pupils who reached the GCSE benchmark was four per cent higher than last year.

Stockport, Trafford, Rochdale and Bury also improved in excess of the national trend. And there were smaller increases in Manchester and Wigan. Over the past three years Bury's 6.8 per cent increase - from 47.4 in 1998 to 54.2 this year - has been the most significant. And over the same period Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wigan have improved faster than the national rate.

Trafford, which still operates a selective grammar school system, continued to be the region's top-marked authority, ranking 12th nationally. And Manchester came bottom, ranking 144th out of the country's 150 local education authorities.

Across Trafford 57.7 per cent of youngsters notched up five or more A*-C grade GCSEs.

And the results at Sale Grammar School, where 98 per cent of pupils achieved five or more high-grade GCSEs, were the best recorded in the state sector in Greater Manchester authorities.

Top performer

But Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School fared even better, with a 100 per cent pass rate that placed it among the country's 50 top-performing selective schools.

Only two other Greater Manchester authorities - Bury and Stockport - recorded results above the national average, both notching up a figure 54.2, after Bury increased by 1.2, Stockport by 2.5. Nationally they ranked 32nd and 33rd respectively.

In Wigan - which ranked 76th nationally - 12 of the 21 secondary schools increased their performance, pushing the overall average up by 0.4 per cent.

Tameside which ranked 105th nationally, saw a slight 0.1 per cent drop in GCSE results. Twelve of its 19 schools recorded lower results than last year. But there were significant increases at Droylsden High School for Girls, Astley High School and Hyde Technology School.

Oldham also saw its results fall from 42.4 to 41.4. But over the past three years its results have risen 4.5 per cent. In Rochdale GCSE results improved faster than the national trend but with just 40 per cent of 16-year-olds getting five or more GCSEs they are still 10 per cent below the national average.

Salford, where results also fell this year, just 34.3 per cent of youngsters chalked up five or more GCSEs.

* See the tables from the Department for Education and Skills below:

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