The Times runs an advice column for readers with a moral dilemma. Last year, a reader wrote to say that he was unsure whether it was ethical to cheat on his CV and claim to have three Grade As at A-Level. Twenty years ago he got three Grade Cs, but in today’s coinage that is worth three As. I can see his point.

The reader was advised not to cheat, because employers know the difference. Older employers perhaps, but does a twenty-five-year-old, told from an early age that he has an A-Grade intellect, know that he is really a C-Grade? In fact those who lose out are the people who got real A-Grades twenty or more years ago. They are now lumped in with the inflated A-Grades of today.

The annual A-Level farce is with us once again. The Telegraph, whose leader-writers are old enough to have passed A-Levels when they were rigorous, points out the obvious:

Without wishing to diminish the hard-earned successes of those who have done well, it nevertheless beggars belief that - for the 28th year in a row - there has been a rise in standards, with a 97 per cent pass rate and the highest ever number of A grades.

Even to whisper that this might be the result of "grade inflation" is to risk the wrath of ministers, who maintain that the improvements can be ascribed entirely to better teaching and cleverer pupils.

Yet the evidence is difficult to dispute. Over the past 40 years, the percentage of A-level entries awarded a pass grade has risen by 40 per cent. Since the mid-1980s, the proportion awarded an A grade has risen from nine per cent to more than 25 per cent.

Research published this week suggested that an A grade today is the equivalent of a C 20 years ago. This is unfair both to those who are exceptional students and would have secured a top grade in any generation, and to those awarded a mark beyond their capabilities.

It is also unfair to universities, which find it impossible to differentiate between the very bright and the mediocre.

While promoting its new vocational diplomas, the Government has realised it must also restore the academic rigour of an exam once considered the gold standard of the education system. From 2010, the best pupils will be able to obtain an A* and changes to the modular structure will help underpin the exam's integrity.

It is crucial for the survival of the A-level that these reforms are not undermined, otherwise alternatives such as the International Baccalaureate and the Pre-U will look increasingly attractive to the best schools, top universities and parents.