Girls have been outperforming boys for years

This represents a 0.7% rise on last year, and figures released on Thursday also showed the gap between girls and boys has narrowed by 1.6%.

However, girls are still outperforming boys, with 66.5% gaining passes grade C and above, compared to 59.3% of boys.

Elsewhere, the overall pass rate fell by 0.1% to 98% and the number of pupils taking foreign languages has fallen.

Welcoming the results, Wales' education minister Jane Hutt said Welsh students should be very proud of their performance.

"These are wonderful achievements and our young people have every reason to celebrate," she said.

Education Minister Jane Hutt is concerned by the gap between boys and girls

And NUT Cymru Secretary David Evans said it was encouraging to see that progess made over the past few years had been "maintained and improved upon yet again this year".

But shadow education minister Alun Cairns AM said pupils deserved to be congratulated, but was worried the education system was leaving young people "unprepared for the world of work".

Last week, Ms Hutt ordered an inquiry into why boys are lagging so far behind girls, describing the situation as unacceptable.

The schools inspection service Estyn is looking into the issue and is expected to report back in the autumn.

Some experts believe the structure of some GCSE courses can favour girls - arguing that they are more likely to do well in coursework and longer-term projects than boys.

There is also growing concern that doing well at school is not considered "cool" by some boys.

Derec Stockley, director of examinations and assessment at WJEC, said he wanted to challenge the view that coursework put boys at a disadvantage.

"We're looking forward to what Estyn's report is going to say about why there is such a gap," he said.

"There clearly is a lot of good practice out there - that's why the gap has narrowed.

"We want to know what some schools are doing, because it's clearly working."

Language drop

But efforts to encourage young people to take GCSEs in French and German appear not to be working.

In 2003, 10,100 candidates took French, but this year the figure has fallen to 8,343.

The numbers taking German have also gone down, from 2,706 to 2,144, but Spanish has seen a rise, from 1,327 to 1,684.

Modern foreign languages are not compulsory in Wales, although the Welsh Assembly Government funds projects which aim to introduce young children to languages at an early stage of their schooling in the hope they will continue learning when they reach 14.

Another concern is the number of teenagers taking the Welsh short course examination rather than the more in-depth first or second language qualification.

The short course requires only one hour of study a week, which supporters of Welsh have said is not enough.

Results from the Welsh Bac's Intermediate Diploma and Foundation Diploma were also released on Thursday and Ms Hutt said it was "an important milestone" for the qualification.

This year, 465 students (84% of those that entered) completed the intermediate level and 288 (81% of those that entered) completed the foundation level.