The Manx government says examination results here cannot be fairly compared with those in the UK.

The Department for Education, Sport and Culture said: ‘The direct comparison of the recently published exam results by the DESC’s five secondary schools, with UK results is misleading, due to significant variations with the two sets of data.

‘The UK results include all exam entries, including Isle of Man results, as well as UK selective schools, independent schools, further education colleges and mature pupils. The Isle of Man data relates solely to 16-year-olds who have completed Year 11 and 18-year-olds who have completed Year 13 in the island’s five secondary schools.’

This statement comes after the Courier last week published a story comparing the Isle of Man’s results to those of England and Jersey.

We asked for a comment at the time but did not receive one until after the newspaper was published.

The department also said: ‘Isle of Man school students achieved an overall pass rate of more than 98% for their qualifications, with a pass rate for GCSEs, IGCSEs and other level 1 and 2 qualifications at 98.1%.

‘A fifth earned the highest A* or A grades and around 60% gained five or more qualifications, including English and maths, which nearly every student sat.

‘The pass rate for A-levels (A*-E) and other level 3 qualifications was higher at 98.8%, with more than half achieving A*-B passes in subjects such as, psychology, physics and politics.’