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3. A-levels: More school pupils opting for science and maths to boost job prospects
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Labour’s shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said: “The fall in the number of
students taking languages is extremely worrying.”
For the second year running the number of students awarded A or A* grades fell, with
26.3% getting the highest marks, down from 26.6% last year.
Boys outperformed girls in the battle for the top grade, with 8% of their entries getting
an A*, compared to 7.4% of girls’.
But when the A* and A grades were combined, girls came out on top.
There were also signs of gender differences in subject choices.
In physics 79.3% of entrants were male, while girls were more likely to opt for English.
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts claimed the battle for places proved the
sky-high £9,000-a-year tuition fees had not put youngsters off applying to university.
He insisted: “Students recognise they don’t pay the tuition fees upfront.
They pay back as graduates if they are in well-paid jobs earning over £21,000.
Young people understand that, which is why we have got applications running at their
second highest level ever.”
As pictures emerged of pupils jumping for joy as they got on their courses, it emerged
the day was almost ruined when hackers tried to access results site Ucas.
Furious Chief executive Mary Curnock Cook said: “There was a criminal and sustained
attempt to crash our website.
We were pretty upset that anybody would think of disrupting such an important day.”
Activities:
1. Write a short summary of the excerpt (about 250 words)
2. Use the following words to complete the sentences relating to the text.
rose by
biggest
nearly
up from
overall
highest
extremely
1) In total, 26.3% of entries scored an A or A*, down from 26.6% last year
– a drop of 0.3%. It is believed to be the second
_____________
fall in the
history of A-levels, and comes the year after the A*-A pass rate fell for the
first time in more than 20 years.
2) The number of entries awarded an A* – the
_____________
grade – also
dipped to 7.6%, compared with 7.9% last year, while the
__________
A*-E pass rate rose slightly by 0.1% to 98.1%.
3) As the pass rate dipped, a breakdown by subject revealed a continued
move towards science and maths A-levels, which are often seen as tough-
er and more traditional subjects.