New elite grade 'will destroy A-levels'

A plan to offer an elite A-level grade to the brightest pupils was dealt a firm blow last night when the Government's own advisers warned that it could destroy the exam's integrity.

A damning report by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) calls on ministers to abandon the proposal, saying it "presents substantial risks to the quality of examining at A-level and to the trustworthiness of existing grades".

The rift comes on the eve of an announcement today that the Government wants the exams watchdog to crack down on blunders by exam boards. This is the second policy disagreement this year; ministers also rejected an attempt by the QCA to cut the time spent on examining Shakespeare in tests for 14-year-olds.

The "super A-level" plans were unveiled in February by Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, in a Green Paper on education for pupils aged 14 to 19.

Under them, youngsters would be offered optional harder questions in their A-level exams that could earn them an A-grade distinction. The move has been designed to help universities select the brightest students from the many who are achieving A grades at A-level.

The new grade would replace plans for world-class tests, called Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs), which would have been sat by 18-year-olds when they had completed their A-levels.

The QCA report says: "The authority is not convinced that the proposed change to A-level grading is necessary, practicable or desirable." It adds that the proposal to introduce a sixth grade without any increase in examination time would "compromise the trustworthiness of examination standards at grades A to E".

Officials from the exams watchdog argue that ministers would be better off sticking to the proposal for AEA's as "the least disruptive and most educationally desirable way forward".

In their response, which has been seen by The Independent, they say: "The authority strongly advises against the Green Paper proposal and believes there are more effective ways of meeting the required objectives".

Earlier this year, the QCA clashed with ministers when it suggested cutting the amount of time spent on examining Shakespeare, from an hour to 45 minutes in national curriculum tests for 14-year-olds. The authority said this would reflect the amount of time spent on the Bard in the early years of secondary schooling. Ms Morris rejected the idea and said the "nonsensical" suggestion would send "completely the wrong signal" to pupils.

Ministers will deliver their response to consultations over the Green Paper later this summer. Independent school headteachers have also attacked the plans.

Meanwhile, the QCA is expected to addressed by Ms Morris today about recent exam blunders. This year, the three main boards have been guilty either of papers arriving late or of errors in exam scripts.

A five-yearly review of the authority's performance, to be published this morning, is likely to conclude that most of its work is satisfactory. But ministers are anxious it should be able to act more swiftly to avoid mistakes of the type that have been seen in GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels.

Powers to be given to the QCA from September will allow it to send in "hit squads" to identify and rectify mistakes before they are seen by candidates. A senior source at the Department for Education and Skills said: "The biggest difficulty is that each mistake, no matter how rare, has the potential to undermine confidence in the system."

The QCA announced last night it would investigate claims that the Edexcel board, which has been threatened with loss of licence, had breached the boards' code of conduct by failing to check the calculation of marks on every paper. Edexcel rejected the accusation and said that it welcomed any investigation.