One of the reasons is thought to be that a substantial number of the children being “fast-tracked” through GCSEs at an early age opt to take maths.In addition, the proportion gaining top-grade passes in the core subjects – maths and English – has risen by 1.2 points and 1 point respectively.. More than 100,000 entries for this year’s GCSE exams were from children aged 15 or younger, more than twice the number from last year, the results show. Last year figures showed more than 30,000 pupils took their GCSEs at least a year early.While today’s figures account for entries rather than candidates, education experts say “fast-tracked” pupils are likely only to take one or two exams early – so the figure of more than 112,000 early entries indicates a rise in those sitting GCSEs early.Ministers are encouragingbright pupils to skip GCSEs in the subjects they are doing well in and go straight to AS-levels. But advisers said the figures showed they were still sitting all their GCSEs, while taking one or two early..

Teenagers still choose careers according to their sex, results of new vocational exams indicate. They are set at GCSE standard but contain more material and are equivalent to several “academic” exams.This summer’s results are the first to measure the achievements of students on a full two-year course. Overall, more than 70 per cent of candidates passed – far lower than the 97.9 per cent who secured at least a G grade at GCSE – with girls outperforming boys by about 10 percentage points.John Milner, convener of the Joint Council for General Qualifications, the body that publishes the exam results, said the boards could not explain the lower pass rate.”We need to do some work to look at the rationale behind the entries for these qualifications. At this stage we can only say that these are the results,” he said.More than a third of candidates took the information technology qualification, with the majority of entries – 16,044 – from boys compared with 6,690 from girls. The position was reversed in health and social care, for which there were 7,889 female candidates and only 677 boys.. Teenage boys were urged to work harder at school yesterday after the Government admitted that the sex gap in GCSE exams remained worryingly high. But girls have now raised it again by 0.1 percentage points for A* to C grade passes.Margaret Hodge, an Education minister, said the gulf was “unacceptable”, adding: “We already have a number of initiatives in place …

but we will continue to identify other ways of responding.”Girls now outperform boys in most subjects. Boys retain the advantage in only a tiny number of cases including in mathematics at grades A* and A and some grades in physics, biology and physical education.Girls also improvedin information technology, outperforming boys by 5.1 percentage points at A* and A grades, up from 3.7 percentage points in 2001. The gap widens to 8.7 percentage points for grades C and above, up from 6.4 points.Some 62.4 per cent of girls’ entries were awarded a C grade or better, compared with 53.4 per cent of boys’ papers. Meanwhile, 5.9 per cent of girls achieved the A* grades, compared with 4.1 per cent of boys.David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, blamed the “anti-learning laddish culture”, adding: “This year’s results clearly demonstrate a good performance by many students, but the boys are dragging down the results.”There is not a cat in hell’s chance of significantly reducing the 40 per cent of results that are below grade C unless the boys raise their game.”John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said parents must take some of the blame. “Schools need parents to give more encouragement to their sons to perform well academically,” he said.Damian Green, the Conservative Party’s education spokesman, called for better vocational education “Too many boys are turned off learning in schools,” he said.

“We need urgently to improve the courses we offer in secondary schools.”Ministers have blamed cultural factors including boys’ belief that it is “uncool” to be seen to be working hard. They dispute that the rise in coursework in GCSE exams – which some commentators argue favours girls – is responsible.But Professor Alan Smithers of Liverpool University said: “The GCSE is an exam which rewards hard work and consistent application. For whatever reason, girls seem to do that more than boys.”Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, called for an inquiry. “That gap is evident at A-level as well and should not simply be ignored by the Government,” he said.Eamonn O’Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said too much could be made of the gap. “Such phenomena have a habit of adjusting themselves, as was evidenced by last year’s results, and could do so again.”. The number of children taking GCSE language courses will fall by as much as 50 per cent in some schools in the next two years, teachers warned yesterday.