• Ministers are driving up the minimum performance target for secondary schools

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 18:25 EST, 22 August 2012 | UPDATED: 18:26 EST, 22 August 2012

Hundreds of schools face being closed or taken over as GCSE results stall for the first time in the exam's 25-year history.

Results for nearly 700,000 pupils this morning are expected to show little or no improvement on last year and grades falling in some subjects.

Ministers are also driving up the minimum GCSE performance target for secondary schools.

Stalling: Results for nearly 700,000 pupils are expected to show little or no improvement on last year

Stalling: Results for nearly 700,000 pupils are expected to show little or no improvement on last year

Heads must ensure that at least 40 per cent of pupils achieve five GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and maths – up from 35 per cent for the past two years.

Schools which miss the target risk being closed or converted into academies – state-funded schools outside local authority control.

Last year's GCSE results suggest that more than 250 schools are below the tough new floor target.

If hoped-for improvements in results fail to materialise today, a similar number could find themselves falling short this year.

Last years GCSE results suggest that more than 250 schools are below the tough new floor target.

Last year's GCSE results suggest that more than 250 schools are below the tough new floor target.

Moves by exam watchdogs to contain 'grade inflation' are expected to end the era of large year-on-year increases in results.

In addition the number of pupils sitting easier vocational qualifications has been cut and science exams have been toughened.

Last week, for the first time in more than 20 years, A-level results showed a drop in the proportion of A grades awarded.

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Someone is nuts. If the rules are changed to control grade inflation <i.e. better exam results>, you then have more students getting lower grades, you then have more schools failing according to the "experts", we are then informed that the "failed" schools face closure. With hundreds of schools facing closure according to your reporter, could someone of these "experts" please tell us where our children are to be educated ?. What happens if these academies do not get the desired results do we return to schools again ? ,or maybe some one could let us know what plan C is.

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Many ( not all) now it seems do not want to gain any education. More interested in becoming a reality tv star, drinking and generally not really doing anything. One would suppose it may have always been that way, but the difference now is that the minority are the ones that try to aspire to something whilst the majority do not.

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Teach them Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Properly.

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So the truth is out. It isn't about raising standards at all it is an ideological & politically motivated method of quickening the privatization of the state education system. The trouble is that Cameron did not have the guts to stand for election on that ticket so it had to go on through the back door.

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This is so unfair on children who have just sat their GCSEs. How would Gove like it if Cameron changed Gove's job specification without telling him and then sacked him for failing to deliver? Actually, that's not a bad idea......

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