Good marks or easier papers?

Employers and education experts have protested for years that exams are getting easier.

But ministers say that the run of record-breaking scores, which has seen A-level pass rates increasing since 1981, is simply because students are performing better.

Schools Minister David Miliband insisted this was so last summer when 95.4 per cent of A-level entries resulted in a pass - up 1.1 per cent on 2002.

The rise in those achieving an A grade was up 0.9 per cent to 21.6 per cent.

GCSEs showed the same trend, with examinees last year scoring the biggest rise in the top-grade pass rate for seven years.

Entries achieving A* to C-grade were one per cent higher at 57.9 per cent.

Earlier this month, a report from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority uncovered evidence that some exams were getting easier. It revealed "evidence that standards of performance declined" between 1995 and 2000 in GCSE double-award science - which is worth two GCSEs and covers physics, biology and chemistry.