But despite this progress the region still has the lowest levels of both A and C grade passes in the country.

Nationally the number of top grades soared higher than ever before with more than one in five exams resulting in an A* or A grade while 65.7 per cent of candidates were awarded a C grade or above, an increase of 2.4 per cent on last year and the largest year on year rise since 1990.

In Yorkshire A grades account for 16.8 per cent of all exams which is lower than any other region in the country. However since 2002 this figure has increased from just 3.8 per cent.

Several councils across the region are predicting schools have achieved their best ever GCSE results yesterday.

Education bosses in Leeds expect the number of students achieving five good GCSE passes to increase by around five per cent from the 55 per cent achieved last year.

Coun Richard Harker, Leeds Council's executive board member responsible for learning, said: "These early indicators of success are the result of the hard work and commitment that our young people, parents and teachers have demonstrated in the build up to these exams.

Doncaster Council also claims more young people in the authority's schools have celebrated good grades than ever before. A record 63.4 per cent of youngsters have gained five or more A* to C grades – up 5.6 per cent on last year, according to the authority

The number of young people achieving the Government benchmark of five good GCSEs, including English and maths, has also risen by 1.6 per cent to 39 per cent.

North Yorkshire saw its top schools celebrate record results.

Results from 30 schools, which represent 71 per cent of the county's secondary school pupils, show that the overall A* to C pass rate has increased by 3.4 per cent to 70.2 per cent, well above the national average of 65.7 per cent. The pass rate of pupils getting five good grades including English and maths, has also increased from 46.7 to 55.5 per cent.

The record results across the country come despite the number of entries falling to around 5.7 million, a five-year low and 2.7 per cent down on last year.

Mike Cresswell, director general of the exam board AQA, said the drop was partly down to a fall in the number of 16-year-olds but also because a greater number of students were taking some exams early in November.

Nationally, the average number of GCSEs taken by students had fallen from just over eight five years ago to just under eight.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders said: "Perhaps schools are focusing on quality rather than quantity. They are recognising that there is no benefit to pupils to do 11 or 12 GCSEs. It is better to have eight or nine good GCSEs."

There was a massive slump in the numbers taking information technology – with entries down by more than 14,000. French and German also suffered drops in entries.