Get the biggest stories sent straight to your inbox Sign up for regular updates and breaking news from WalesOnline Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The proportion of Welsh pupils achieving top A-level grades has fallen to its lowest level since 2002, official figures published today show.

Overall, 22.7% of teenagers in Wales gained A*-A grades – down from 23.1% last year and 23.3% in 2014.

The figure has not been as low since 2002, when 21.5% of pupils obtained top grades.

How the nations compare at Grade A and A*

A sharp decline in the number of pupils winning coveted A*s is also cause for concern, with just 6.6% making the grade compared to a record 7.3% last summer.

But Wales has arrested the decline in its overall A*-E pass rate, which stabilised at 97.3% having fallen for the previous two years.

A breakdown by individual subject suggests some problems with the key skills of maths and English, which are both down on previous years.

Figures show 4.6% of English entries won an A* – down from 5% – and just 15.9% returned an A grade, down from the 16.7% recorded last summer.

The performance of pupils in maths paints a similar picture, with 16.1% achieving an A* (from 19% in 2015) and 43.2% obtaining an A (down from 43.3%).

Huge fall in Welsh first language entries

Overall entries in modern foreign languages continue to drop, with 44 fewer entries in French and 57 fewer entries in Spanish. There were two more entries in German.

There has been a fall in entries for Welsh first language at both A-level and AS – and at A-level for Welsh second language.

The figures came as thousands of Welsh students opened their A-level envelopes – which have been hailed as a milestone in the development of a distinct Welsh education system.

This year’s A-level students will be the last in Wales to receive qualifications that will be directly comparable with England’s.

Across the UK

Across the UK as a whole, a total of 25.8% of entrants scored either an A or A*, down from 25.9% in 2015; and 8.1% of entrants received an A*, down from 8.2% last year.

Almost three in 10 candidates in Northern Ireland achieved grades A or above (29.5%). The equivalent rate for England was 25.8%.

Northern Ireland also saw the highest overall pass rate (grades A*-E): a total of 98.2% of entrants. The figure for England was 98.1%.

Education Secretary Kirsty Williams, presiding over her first set of exam results, congratulated Welsh pupils but said lessons would need to be learned after Wales' surprise dip in top grades.

She said: “Today is about celebrating the success of our pupils. I want to congratulate everyone receiving their results and thank them for all their hard work.

“The number achieving the highest grades is encouraging, we can be proud of our pupil’s performance in maths and the progress when it comes to the Welsh Baccalaureate.

“However, there are some areas where we are not where we would want to be. I will be looking closely at the full details of these results and those we expect next week to see what lessons we can learn and what we can do differently.

“Our performance at the top grades in maths show what Wales can achieve. I will be pushing further ahead with our reforms and continue to develop qualifications to make sure we build an education system that provides pupils with the appropriate skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the modern world.”

Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of university admissions body Ucas, said a record number of A-level students had achieved a place at university.

She said 424,000 students would be offered their first or second choice of degree course.

She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “It’s 424,000 placed – the highest ever on A-level results day. It’s up 3% on last year.

“It does mean that young people now are something like 4% more likely to be going to university because, although the population was down a bit this year we’ve actually seen a rise in the numbers, so that’s really good news.”