What the papers say

Journalist Mike Philpott takes a look at what is making the headlines in Thursday's morning papers.

The papers are evenly divided between those that question the value of the A-level results and those that urge us to allow students to enjoy their success.

The Financial Times falls into the former camp. It says the rising number of candidates is causing the A-level system to fail its own key test - to "sort the exceptional from the merely good".

The Mail is horrified that examiners marking GCSE papers have been banned from penalising poor spelling and grammar in English Literature papers.

And the Daily Telegraph talks of concern about students opting for easier subjects and avoiding the harder ones like Physics or German.

The News Letter reports that Northern Ireland students have once again increased the academic gap with their counterparts across the water, with a record number of top grades.

The paper says we are "top of the class," and it heaps praise on students, parents and teachers.

Star

It believes that the good performance also underlines the importance of our grammar school system, and it urges government ministers to leave well alone.

That distinction is not lost on the Daily Telegraph, which says Northern Ireland has emerged as the star of this year's exams.

The Irish News also comments that "celebrations are in order," but it is concerned about the declining popularity of science subjects - a trend which it believes will have an impact on our ability to produce the engineers and scientists of the future.

It argues that greater efforts must be made to ensure that young people choose subjects which are in line with the requirements of employers.

The Irish Independent and the Irish Times both look at the results of the Leaving Certificate in the Republic.

And while the Independent has its own worries about the lack of interest in science subjects, it believes the most accurate images of the exam results are "the happy faces of the young people who have come well through this rite of passage".

Extreme

The most dramatic pictures in Thursday's papers show the mudslide in Scotland that trapped more than 50 people.

That, along with the other extreme weather event in Cornwall, takes up most of the column centimetres in the cross-channel papers.

But one or two give a prominent showing to other topics.

The Times is one of several papers to hail a breakthrough in the world of medicine.

It reports that a new drug based on an old Chinese remedy promises to save the lives of many thousands of people infected with malaria.

The paper reports that there are between 300 and 500 million cases of the illness each year, and trials of the drug will be conducted soon in Africa and Thailand.

Rations

There's also much discussion about the change in army rations.

The Guardian reports that beef stew and dumplings are being replaced with chicken pasta and similar meals.

Out go biscuits and in come peach slices. The paper says the move was prompted by soldiers complaining that their American colleagues enjoyed better food. But it adds that custard will still be available for those who want it.

Finally, several papers report on concerns in the health service over the fact that doctors' letters are being sent overseas to be typed because of a shortage of secretarial skills in the UK.

The problem, according to the Mail, is that something is lost in the translation when typists are listening to tapes from dictation machines.

In one case, phlebitis in the left leg became a flea bit on the left leg. In another, a eustachian tube malfunction became a Euston Station tube malfunction.