STANDARDS at Kent’s secondary schools have improved again, according to Government figures just released.

But the increase in the percentage of pupils passing five or more GCSE passes at grades A to C has been overshadowed by previously unpublished data that appears to suggest the Government’s league tables are masking a marked decline in standards in maths and English in many of the county’s schools.

An unofficial analysis by the BBC, highlighted in a Radio 4 documentary File On Four on Thursday night and using previously unpublished data, shows a high proportion of Kent’s secondary schools have far lower GCSE pass rates taking into account the number of students passing maths and English.

They include schools that have in previous years been singled out by the Government as among the most improved in the country.

Once passes in those subjects are brought into the equation, the Kent average would fall by more than ten per cent from an average pass rate of 55.9 per cent to 45.1 per cent, based on the figures for 2004. The Government has already announced that from 2007, a school’s ranking in the league tables will be based on five GCSE passes that include both maths and English.

The Government’s own figures show that overall in Kent, the GCSE pass rate rose by three per cent to 58.6 per cent this year. The national rate of improvement was two per cent. There has been growing concern that the tables are misleading because one pass in some vocational GNVQ subjects is, under the existing system, the equivalent of four GCSE passes. Girls outperformed boys by a margin of eight per cent, with 54.5 per cent of boys passing five or more GCSE passes compared to 62.6 per cent for girls.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said: "Rising standards in our secondary schools means that compared to 1997 over 60,000 more 15 year olds are achieving 5+A*-C’s. This is a tremendous achievement and one that schools, teachers and pupils deserve to be proud of."

In Medway, the pass rate was 51.6 per cent.

But the comparison of how well schools performed taking into account numbers passing maths and English indicates that every single non-selective secondary school in Kent fares less well. In some, overall pass rates fall by more than half.

Ashford’s North School, identified as one of the most improved in the country 2004, would have seen its average pass rate drop from 60 per cent to 31 per cent. The Hugh Christie Technology College in Tonbridge would have seen the GCSE pass rate fall from 54 per cent to 12 per cent.

The differences are less marked in the county’s 33 grammars, with most showing only a small percentage drop.

* The performance of individual schools will be known when the full league tables are published next January.