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Headteachers and the government were at loggerheads last night after ministers faced calls to correct the "hidden scandal" of students choosing to take easier A-levels to boost their chances of going to university.
Results out today show A-level entries this year increasing by a fifth in the non-traditional school subjects of law, business studies, media, film and TV studies and above all psychology.
But in a year where A-level entries increased by 7% to 750,000, science and modern languages - which the government has stressed are essential to the country's future economic success - are on the wane.
The numbers of students taking physics fell by 3%, chemistry by 1.5%, biology by 0.8%, German by 0.9 and French by 0.5% at A-level.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "It's a consequence of people perceiving that maths, physics, chemistry and modern foreign languages are harder subjects. Since most university courses do not require particular subjects, an A or a B in psychology is worth the same. Statistically it's easy to show that psychology is an easier A-level than maths.
"It is incredibly worrying because maths and modern languages are subjects that the country needs. It's totally because they are the hardest A-levels. I fear greatly for the future of modern languages."
Dr Dunford said the inquiry into the 14-19 curriculum by Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools, should ensure that A-level standards were comparable in all subjects. "That is not the case at the moment. It's a hidden scandal of the A-level system."
Amid considerable irritation in Whitehall about Dr Dunford's intervention, the Department for Education and Skills issued questions from this year's law and psychology papers in an attempt to show how difficult the subjects were.
Ken Boston, the chief executive of the exams regulator, the qualifications and curriculum authority, insisted "there is no such thing as an 'easy' A-level".
David Miliband, the school standards minister, said: "Every A-level subject meets rigorous standards and several international panels have shown this to be true. Today is the day we should be celebrating achievement not falling for the British disease of knocking success. Let's give students and teachers a break from this annual carping."
Dr Dunford pointed to research by Carol Fitz-Gibbon, a professor at Durham university, which shows that students with better GCSE results were more likely to take maths, science and foreign languages. He said this partly explained the dramatic number of A grades at maths A-level, 38.9%. Maths A-level numbers rallied to 55,917 but are still well down on the 66,247 who took the subject in 2001.
Prof Fitz-Gibbon said last night: "It's in the schools' interest to put people in for easier subjects that push them up the league tables."
She accused the Department for Education and Skills of penalising schools which encourage students to take harder subjects with the introduction of its new "value added" measurements in the league tables. "It's pretending that a subject is equally difficult and by so doing it's punishing schools that are putting people in for maths, science and modern languages."
The new two-part A-level, launched in 2000, was intended to bring greater breadth and diversity to post-16 study. But government hopes that arts students would take an extra science subject, or vice-versa, appear to have foundered. Instead students are increasingly taking mixed-discipline, quasi-vocational subjects that until not long ago were the preserve of universities.
A spokesperson for the Royal Society said: "It is disappointing that fewer students have taken A-level science subjects this year. If this trend continues and results in fewer people taking science subjects at degree level it will be a cause for concern not just for scientists but for the rest of the population as well."
Linda Parker, director of the Association of Language Learning, said: "We are concerned about the discrepancy in some of the rhetoric about what appears in the languages strategy and the reality of what's happening in schools. We are still doubtful that there is really going to be change in numbers once languages become optional from 14.
"School managers always have an eye on their league table position and at the same time there is not enough encouragement for students to continue with languages post-14 and post-16."
Psychology is now the sixth most popular A-level subject - just 69 entries behind history - and the third most popular at AS-level.
Jonathan Shum of the British Psychological Society said psychology was "a sexy subject" but he did not think it was easier. "People in the second half of the 20th century began to be interested in human behaviour and human motivation," he said.
The A-level pass rate rose this year as it has every year since 1982, up 1.1 points to 95.4%. The proportion of A grades rose by 0.9 to 21.6%. But at AS-level, the percentage of A, B, C and D grades were all down. In virtually all subjects, girls extended their lead over boys.
Mr Tomlinson, appointed to oversee the marking process, said he was satisfied that the exam boards had taken on recommendations from two reports he published in the wake of a furious row over grade fixing.
The exam boards echoed comments they made at the same time last year that they were confident nothing seriously untoward had happened.
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