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Girls' performances remained ahead of boys', but the gap continued to nar row. The biggest change in subject popularity was in religious studies, with 1 69% more entries than in 2004, at 16,859 in total. The council's director, Ellie Johnson Searle, said: "Students are again e xercising their individual choices in a system that promotes exactly tha t: individuals choosing to study what they are interested in and what th ey feel they are good at."
is sig nificant at a time when Britain increasingly needs young people to under stand the complexities of our faith communities and participation in our democratic society."
Send us your comments But A-levels have been the main focus of debate about whether standards a re being maintained, given the continuing rise is success rates - up for the 23rd successive year. England's Schools Minister, Lord Adonis, has insisted that the progress i s real. Even so, the government is committed to reforms to make it easier for uni versities and employers to distinguish between the best candidates.
Calls to update exams And it faced renewed calls for the overarching diploma system advocated i n the Tomlinson report on 14 to 19 education, which it has rejected. Somewhat confusingly, although candidates get their individual results on Thursday, the national figures relate to exam entries rather than candi dates. Provisional national statistics on how students have performed, such as t he proportion getting two or more A-levels and their average points scor es, will not be available until October. The national school and college "league tables" for England, based on the results, are not published until the turn of the year. GCSE-level results are due to be published next week - on Tuesday for the Northern Ireland exam board, and on Thursday for all the boards.
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