Pupils at independent schools are three times more likely to gain the A* grade as those in comprehensive schools, yesterday's A-level results revealed. The finding prompted the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, to warn that the school system was "one of the most segregated in the world".
The new grade, introduced this year, was awarded for 8.1 per cent of scripts, stirring memories of the 1960s, when 8.5 per cent were given an A grade. As one education expert put it: "A* is the new A grade."
Teachers' leaders warned that the new grade would hamper state school pupils' chances of getting into Britain's top universities. The figures showed that 17.9 per cent of all independent school entries were awarded an A*, compared with just 5.8 per cent of entries from comprehensive schools. In state grammar schools, 12.5 per cent of entries were given an A* grade.
John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, described the A* grade as "a belt and braces filter for the Russell Group [the group representing 20 of the country's leading higher education research institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge] to select their candidates.
"All this is going to achieve is independent pupils succeeding in getting places against state school pupils – and that's something of massive concern."
Education experts have said independent schools are stealing a march by offering more coaching for the A* grade. Mr Gibb said the Government was anxious to improve social mobility by adopting policies like the "pupil premium" – giving schools more cash to take in disadvantaged pupils.
Overall, this year's A-levels saw an overall 0.3 percentage point rise in the percentage of A grades awarded – from 26.7 per cent to 27 per cent. The overall pass rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 97.6 per cent. It is the 28th year in succession that the figure has risen.
Boys have narrowed the gap between them and girls this year from 2 percentage points to 1.8 percentage points at A grade and from 1.1 to 0.9 in the overall pass rate.
Professor Alan Smithers, head of the Centre for Education and Employment at Buckingham University, had said this would be a result of reforms which had introduced more open-ended questions designed to tease out critical thinking skills. Girls still outscored boys in the top grade, 8.3 per cent gaining an A*, compared to 7.9 per cent of boys.
This year's results saw a further decline in the take-up of modern foreign languages – with a further 3.76 percentage point drop in the take-up of German to 5,548 and a 3.37 percentage point drop in French to 13, 850.
drive from www.independent.co.uk