The gap between the very top performing girls and boys at A-level has narrowed for the first time in five years, as thousands of students across the country celebrate their AS and A-Level results.
The proportion of A*s being awarded to students this year has also dropped for the fifth year in a row, official figures show, contrary to expert predictions leading up to results day.
While the number of boys achieving the top grade fell by 0.2 per cent on last year, the number of girls achieving A*s remained slightly more stable, with a fall of 0.1 per cent overall.
The proportion of students offered the coveted A* and A grades in the UK dropped overall, with just over a quarter of all students making the top grades.
Welsh schools in particular achieved a low rate of top grades, with the percentage of A*s awarded falling from 7.3 per cent down to 6.6. Girls did better than boys in this region, with the the number of boys achieving A*s falling from 7.8 per cent to 6.7.
Meanwhile, early Ucas figures show a record number of almost 424,000 A-levels students have been placed in UK higher education as of midnight - up 3 per cent on last year.
Including A grades, girls continue to slightly out-perform their male counterparts - with 25.9 per cent for girls compared with 25.8 per cent for boys.
Mathematics remains the most popular subject, accounting for 11 per cent of all exam entries, followed by English (10.1 per cent) and biology (7.5 per cent), the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said.
Entries in Modern Foreign Langauges all dropped dramatically this year, but exam board officials said they felt "encouraged" by the increased A* outcomes in French, German and Spanish. German offered one of the most suprising results, with an increase of 1.3 per cent in top A* grades.
The news follows concerns raised by Ofsted last year over the quality of language teaching in schools.
A spokesperson from the NAHT teaching union said in response to the results: "We need to ensure that there are enough trained teachers to offer a breath of languages, and for schools to be supported to ensure primary pupils are also exposed to the challenges of learning a language. A national strategy is needed to address this continual decline.”
The government has said it is keen to encourage more students to take up languages in schools after a 2013 European Commission European Survey on Language Competences found that “England's performance did not compare well with the global average”.
There was also an 8 per cent dip in the number of students entering into Chinese at A-Level, with the number of pupils taking languages to AS and A-Level falling overall from last year.
French, Spanich and German are said to have been marked less harshly this year, which in turn could help encourage students to take languages on at GCE level.
Michael Turner, the JCQ's director general, said of the results “Overall, outcomes are relatively unchanged.
“However, the shift in entry patterns and the introduction of new specifications in reformed subjects could lead to a greater volatility in year-on-year results in some schools and colleges than is experienced in a typical year.”
The number of exams taken has declined by 1.7 per cent, from 850,749 last year to 836,705, despite an overall increase in the number of teenagers of examination age in the UK.
The results follow changes in a decoupling of AS-levels and A-levels, which were introduced with the new school curriculum for the first time this year.
Malcolm Trobe, the interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was particularly concerned about the continuing decline in entries to A-Levels in modern foreign languages and creative subjects such as music and design and technology.
He warned that the situation could continue to decline following budget cuts in post-16 education.
He said: “These statistics reflect the fact that sixth forms and colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to run courses where there are relatively small numbers of students because of severe funding pressures.
“The level of post-16 funding is woeful and urgently needs to be addressed. We are in danger of becoming trapped in a vicious circle where entries to these very important subjects continue to decline and there are consequently fewer people to teach them in the future, exacerbating an ongoing recruitment crisis. The Government must invest more money in post-16 education as a matter of urgency.”
