In 639 schools, less than 30% of pupils got five good GCSEs including English and maths, the target for 2012.

But this was down from 789 schools last year and ministers say many more are on the verge of surpassing the standard.

Independent schools and teacher unions have said the tables are misleading and distort the secondary curriculum.

The tables show that nationally 46.7% of pupils at the end of their compulsory education attained the equivalent of a grade C or above in five GCSEs including English and maths.

2007 SECONDARY SCHOOL TABLES

• five good GCSEs with English and maths: 46.7%
• independent schools: 61.1%
• community schools: 42.4%
• academies: 30.9%
• less than 30% in 639 schools

Girls continued to outperform boys in the exams they took last summer, with 51.2% of girls making the grade against 42.4% of boys.

The best school at GCSE level was, as last year, Chelmsford County High School for Girls, a grammar school in Essex.

Its 120 GCSE students all had at least five good GCSEs and their average points score of 748.2 equates to almost 13 A* grades for each girl.

The worst was Parklands High School, a non-specialist comprehensive in Speke, Merseyside, where only 1% got five good grades with English and maths and the average points score was 217.4.

The school where pupils made the most progress was Moreton Community School in Wolverhampton, a technology specialist, with a "contextual value added" score of 1090.5.

This takes into account nine factors outside a school's control which are known to affect attainment, such as gender, first language and deprivation.