NO one doubts the fact that athletes today are capable of better times and distances than ever before. No one dares to suggest the mile is shorter now than it was when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier in 1954.

Why then do so many people automatically assume that A-levels are easier these days simply because more students pass them?

It would be a matter of grave concern if results were not improving. After all, the nation is investing more than ever in education and is quite rightly encouraging children to stay on past the age of 16 at school or college.

Today, young people from all social and economic backgrounds have access to a first class education. In the past, such opportunities were limited to the privileged or the fortunate few.

A generation ago, barely ten per cent of teenagers went to university. Should we not expect standards to be better when 30 per cent of our children go on to some form of higher education?

As a nation should we not be celebrating the success and progress of our young people, rather than denigrating their achievements?

Our education service remains far from perfect. The fall in the number of people taking maths at A-level, for example, is a worrying trend which needs addressing.

And there is a case to re-examine the scope of courses in modern subjects, to ensure they tax the wits and minds of students as rigorously as more traditional subjects.

But we must also take into account that this year's crop of A-level students are the first to come through the AS-level system, and the upheaval that caused last summer. Despite this added burden, they have still managed to achieve record results.

Critics of A-levels standards should consider the possibility that today's children may be more intelligent, harder working and better taught than previous generations.

This morning, perhaps, they should spare a few moments to pay tribute to them and their teachers for what they have achieved rather than reflect on a past which was not as superior as they might like to think.