Academies accused of 'distortions' in exams figures

ACADEMIES have been accused of improving their GCSE results by having fewer pupils tackling the more difficult humanities and science subjects.

New figures show that at the independently run state schools fewer students sat exams in modern foreign languages, history, geography, physics and chemistry than at local authority run schools.

The information, obtained through questions by Labour MP Tristram Hunt, comes just weeks after claims the success of academies was down to the reliance on vocational subjects

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Now it has been revealed that just eight per cent of all academy pupils entered for physics GCSE in 2008-09, compared with 12 per cent of pupils in other state schools and nine per cent sat chemistry exams compared with 12 per cent in the rest of state sector.

The pattern was also repeated outside of science subjects. In GCSE geography just 17 per cent pupils sat a GCSE at academies compared with 26 per cent in other state schools, while in modern languages just over a quarter of academy pupils sat a GCSE compared with 41 per cent in the rest of the state system.

The director of education at the think-tank Civitas which helped Mr Hunt to gather the information, Anastasia de Waal, said: "Withdrawing academic GCSEs and replacing them with weak substitutes has been great for academies' league table position but hugely detrimental to the already often limited opportunities available to the young people they serve."

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