State statistics: Private school heads attack Government failure over maths

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The qualification was not recognised by Labour Ministers, meaning figures have been skewed against independent schools whose pupils sit the exams.

The coalition had pledged to reverse this decision to ensure that students' achievements in the IGCSE were counted but the latest tables have not recognised the maths IGCSE being offered by the exam board Edexcel.

This has led to a repeat of the situation seen in previous years where some independent schools have deceptively low figures for the numbers of pupils achieving at least five A* to C GCSE grades, including English and maths.

Many of the most famous schools in the world – including Eton, Marlborough, Harrow and Dulwich College – registered lower results than some of England's worst-performing comprehensives because of the technicality.

Leo Winkley, headmaster of the historic St Peter's School in York said: "We were pleased that the new government announced that it would recognise IGCSE, but now we find they are only recognising the Cambridge (CIE) board of IGCSEs and not those IGCSEs offered by Edexcel, and yet far more pupils take the Edexcel IGCSE maths."

Official figures show St Peter's has less than a third of its students reaching the benchmark figure of five good GCSEs including English and maths, when the real figure should have been 100 per cent.

Mr Winkley added: "This is a mockery of the efforts and achievements of both our pupils and staff and grotesquely trivialises what we are trying to do in schools."

St Peter's pupils first began taking the IGCSE in 2007. Last year 65 pupils took the qualification with more than 90 per cent achieving A* or A grades.

Scarborough College also highlighted that students sitting an international course in maths and business studies meant that its official five A* to C including English and maths figure was lower than it should be.

The Department for Education figures show 81 per cent of pupils reached this standard whereas the independent school claims it would have been 89 per cent, if IGCSEs were taken into account.

Hymers College was also affected. The private school in Hull issued a statement which said: "For the second year running the school's pupils gained over 70 per cent A* and A's at GCSE. It is a great shame that this remarkable achievement is not fully reflected in the Government's league tables."