GCSEs: record number pass early... including a five-year-old

A fresh row over GCSE standards erupted yesterday as record numbers of pupils took exams at least a year early. Results posted in schools showed that teenagers took more than 83,000 maths GCSEs before the intended age of 16 this year - nearly three times as many as 2008. Nearly 67,000 took English at age 15 or younger - a 59 per cent increase in 12 months alone.

Achiever: Dee Alli, pictured with her mentors Paula Imafidon, left, and Ann-Marie Imafidon, has become the youngest person to get a GCSE after passing her maths exam at the age of five.

The trend cast doubt on the future of GCSE as an end-of-school exam. 

This year also saw another record broken with five-year-old Dee Alli becoming the youngest person to pass a GCSE. 

Dee, who lives with her parents, Joy and Rasheed Alli, in Southwark, South London, gained a C in maths  -  after finding the exam 'very easy'.

The youngster, who enjoys singing and watching television, starts primary school next month.

Dee said: 'I find maths very, very easy. I didn't know I was taking the exam  -  I thought it was a game. Maths is a big game with numbers. 

'I found it very easy because it was mostly questions about the difference between numbers. I'm very surprised to be the youngest ever. I'm very proud of myself.' 

Last summer, Dee's brother, Jude, hit the headlines when he sat his maths GCSE aged six and gained a D. 

Pupils passed 69.1 per cent of exams at grades A* to C. Just one in every 77 GCSE exams was failed

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The supergirl who racked up 15A*

Chidera Ota led the GCSE roll of honour yesterday with 15 A*s.

Chidera, who studied Latin twice a week in her lunch break, has gained a scholarship to attend King's School, Canterbury, where she will study chemistry, physics, biology, maths and further maths A-levels. 

The 16-year-old pupil at Highsted Grammar School, Sittingbourne, Kent, achieved the grades in English literature and language, maths, statistics, French, German, Latin, history, sociology, chemistry, biology, physics and an IT qualification worth three GCSEs. 

Chidera, who lives with her Nigerian-born parents - Uchenna, a GP, and Mercy, a nurse - in the Isle of Sheppey, wants to become a doctor. 

She said: 'I stayed home a lot and put a lot of work into my GCSEs. I want to become a doctor so I know it's a very hard and competitive field and I need to do extremely well to get into medicine. 

'I want to go to a top university and have already looked around Oxford and Cambridge. I think I'd like to go to St John's College at Cambridge.' 

Seven-year-old OSCAR SELBY achieved an A* in GCSE maths - the youngest person to gain the super grade.