There was a time when this point in the academic year would be one of agonising suspense for schoolchildren in Britain and other countries where examination results are about to be published. Now, all that has changed. Thanks to grade inflation, children can enjoy their holidays without a care in their little heads, safe in the knowledge that just about anyone capable of spelling their name correctly at the top of the paper can expect to get straight As. Or so it would seem.

Grade inflation is suspected in many countries, especially the US, where it is thought to be rife at university level. In Britain, it is more often claimed to affect GCSE exams taken at the age of about 16 and A-levels taken two years later. If the results, due out during the next two weeks, continue the recent improving trend, it is safe to predict that a broad coalition of government critics, academics, media pundits and curmudgeons will say it is a story not of rising educational standards but of falling exam standards: either the exams are getting easier or the marking is getting softer or very probably both.