A-level reformer told ministers: we need more time

Exams fiasco: Government embarrassed by former watchdog chief's admission that changes were rushed

The man who devised the present A-level system said yesterday he had pleaded with ministers to be allowed more time to introduce the exam.

In his first public comments since the crisis over this summer's A-level exams, Dr Nick Tate, who was head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) until the month the system was brought in, said: "All of us involved were concerned about the time-scale."

The former chief of the government's exams watchdog admitted that the decision to press ahead with the reforms without piloting the new A-levels in schools made it hard for examiners to award accurate grades.

The crisis worsened yesterday with the announcement from Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, that the publication of government secondary school exam league tables, due out next month, will be postponed indefinitely.

The move will, in effect, put the publication of individual GCSE, A-level and AS-level results on hold for the first time since they were introduced in 1992. With Dr Tate's comments, it is an embarrassment to the Government as it seeks to focus on efforts to improve schools and hospitals during this week's party conference.

Speaking after addressing a private session of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in Newport, Gwent, Dr Tate said: "I think we would all have liked to have more time, but one understands that politicians have a shorter timescale and a different view of time than people implementing new sets of arrangements. I think another year would have helped."

Dr Tate, who is now the headmaster of Winchester College, the £18,000-a-year fee-paying boarding school in Hampshire, also defended Sir William Stubbs, the head of the QCA, who was forced to resign last week. "I think it is very unfortunate that a very able and very honourable public servant who has given this country many years of excellent public service in education should have gone in the way he did and the manner," Dr Tate said.

His intervention comes on the eve of the publication of a report by Mike Tomlinson, the former chief schools inspector running an independent inquiry into the affair. He will outline today how many students will have to have their A-level results re-checked and possibly re-graded. Head teachers have estimated the numbers will run into tens of thousands.

Dr Tate acknowledged that it was a "general principle" of introducing exam systems that they should be piloted in schools beforehand. The independent inquiry report criticised the decision not to do so.

Dr Tate said: "It would have been surprising if results had not risen, partly because of a genuine improvement in standards and partly because another part of the system gave students the ability to resit AS-levels."

But this aspect of the new system was, he claimed, open to abuse. The marks in AS-levels count towards the final A-level grade and he said he knew of pupils awarded A grades in AS-levels who were resitting the exams because they were "low A grades".

His admission is bound to put pressure on ministers to change the system for resitting papers. It will also increase the pressure on ministers to admit blame for the fiasco. However, last night there were suggestions that the rush to implement the system was down to David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education at the time, and Baroness Blackstone, who was in charge of post-16 education, rather than Ms Morris.

The news that the publication of the league tables had been postponed was welcomed by John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, who said he was delighted. He added: "League tables do enough damage when they are based on accurate information and it would be unthinkable to produce them this year after the recent A-level debacle."

Independent schools may abandon the league tables of GCSE and A-level results they produce after grades are announced in August. This year, up to 30 such schools boycotted the tables over dissatisfaction with marking standards.