BOYS have outperformed girls in maths for the first time in more than a decade according to today’s record GCSE results.

Teachers’ leaders and exam board heads said dropping coursework from the subject in favour of examinations had been "beneficial" for boys.

More than two thirds of entries (67.1%) were awarded at least a C grade, and more than one in five (21.6%) scored an A or A*, today’s results showed.

But there was a dip in the number of entries gaining at least a C in English.

The Examiner will be featuring a special report in tomorrow's print edition with GCSE grades from schools around our area.

However not all schools have agreed to make public their results when asked by the Examiner.

As more than 700,000 16-year-olds were opening their results, national figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland showed that 15.5% of boys maths’ entries were awarded top grades, compared with 15.2% of entries from girls.

Overall 57.6% of boys’ entries for the subject were awarded at least a C, compared with 56.8% from girls.

Dr Mike Cresswell, head of the AQA exam board said this was this first time that boys had done better at GCSE maths since 1997.

He said: "The obvious speculation is it reflects the removal of coursework from GCSE maths.

"It’s well established that girls outperform boys at coursework."

Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said: "Boys have overtaken girls at GCSE maths, coursework having been abolished two years ago. It clearly shows how the type of assessment directly affects achievement.

"This suggests that next year, when coursework is reduced in many other subjects, boys’ achievement will catch up with girls."

He said this supported ASCL’s arguments for externally accredited chartered assessors to be installed in every school.

They could oversee different types of assessment throughout the two years of GCSE study which would "level the playing field" between boys and girls.

From this September the vast majority of subjects will be split into bitesize chunks or modules, and in many academic GCSEs coursework will be replaced by "controlled assessment".

Today’s results were published amid claims GCSEs have outlived their purpose.

Former chief inspector of schools Sir Mike Tomlinson said GCSEs were "complex and expensive" to administer.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the future of the exams would have to be reviewed following the Government’s decision to extend the education leaving age to 18.

"It does raise the question of why do we need such a complex terminal examination at that point and if we do need it, what purpose does it serve?"

Sir Mike added: "I think we would need to have some form of assessment of progress at 16, simply to give a clear indication of whether a student was on the right course, was working at the level necessary.

"But I don’t think we need necessarily have a system that is as complex and expensive as at present."