CLAIMS that this year's improvements in A-level results showed the exam was being "dumbed down" were fiercely rejected last night.

As thousands of students across the North-East prepare to get their results today, business leaders and education traditionalists condemn what they claim is a lowering of A-level standards .

The results showed a 0.3 per cent rise nationwide in the number of A grades, continuing an unbroken run of improvement back to 1990.

But ministers, headteachers and students hit back, saying standards had not slipped and candidates were to be congratulated for working harder.

The news that the percentage of A grades had risen to 17.8 per cent from the 1999 figure of 17.5 per cent has sparked off the now-traditional row about education standards.

For the first time girls overtook boys, achieving more A to C grades in total and beating their male rivals at maths and physics.

The Joint Council for General Qualifications, the umbrella body for exam boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, acknowledged there were more top marks, but insisted standards were being maintained.

Higher Education Minister Baroness Blackstone declared: "No doubt there will be those, as usual, who seek to devalue these results.

"They are wrong - these results reflect real achievement.

"Young people understand that good qualifications are increasingly important to their future careers and they work hard to achieve good results."

But Ruth Lea, of the Institute of Directors, described the results as "farcical". She added: "We are deeply pessimistic about this dumbing down. A-levels are no longer the gold standard."

Her comments were backed by Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, who said the annual increases in the number of A grades are a clear indication that standards had fallen.

However, David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Ruth Lea and the Institute of Directors are in danger of bordering on the hysterical.

"Both she and the Campaign for Real Education are undermining the achievements of students and teachers in a way I find absolutely disgraceful."

Peter Shuker, principal and chief executive at Darlington College of Technology, said: "I don't accept there has been a dumbing down at all and, if anything, A-levels are even more demanding than they used to be."

Nick Brewster, director of curriculum at Bishop Auckland College, added: "I don't agree that standards have slipped and the increases are testament to the fact children are getting a better education."

This year, for the first time, all A-level candidates will be able to have their marked scripts returned so they can see how they did.

l Schools are facing a book crisis as many have not received enough money to pay for set texts for the new A and AS level curriculum, say campaigners.

They are caught in the middle of a funding row between the Government and local authorities over what has happened to cash earmarked last year for the expanded sixth form study programme, says the School Book Alliance.

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Cost of learning - Page 1