Allow A-level markers to be whistle-blowers, say heads

Exam markers should be given the right to "blow the whistle" to avoid a repeat of this summer's A-level controversy, headteachers will demand today.

The three headteachers' organisations that brought the problems with A-level grades to light this year want a confidentiality clause in examiners' contracts lifted – so that they can expose any attempts to meddle with results. They also want strict curbs on the powers of exam board executives to stop them making widespread changes to exam grade boundaries.

The decision by Ron McLone, chief executive of the Oxford and Cambridge and RSA board, to alter more than 400 grade boundaries at the last moment began the crisis over marks awarded. Nearly 2,000 A- and AS-level candidates had to have their results upgraded.

The three organisations – the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, the Girls' School Association and the Secondary Heads Association (SHA)– will call for wide-ranging changes to the examination system in evidence submitted to the Tomlinson independent inquiry into A-levels today.

The SHA – which represents state school heads – says marks awarded for the AS-level exam (normally taken at the end of the first year of the sixth-form) should not count towards the A-level result.

Headteachers say it was the high marks awarded for last year's AS-level results which led to pressure from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Government's exams watchdog, to mark down this year's work to avoid a row over grade inflation. The three groups argue the QCA should become independent of the Department for Education and Skills to avoid any suggestion of political interference in exam results.

The heads also argue that executives of the exam board should only be allowed to change grade boundaries if they can justify their decision to independent scrutineers within a couple of days.

John Dunford, the general secretary of SHA, said: "Even if AS marks don't count towards A-levels, people can still use them in their university application forms to show what they have achieved."

The SHA also professes amazement at fears over an increase in the pass rate – pointing out this year's candidates were the first to study under the national curriculum throughout their school life. "It would have been a sad indictment of government policy had these students not been better equipped to sit, pass and excel in the new A-level examination," it says. "The failure of DfES, QCA and the awarding bodies, collectively, to prepare for this in terms of ... public perceptions is, with hindsight, extraordinary."

Mr Tomlinson's final report on A-levels is due next month.

*University teachers are expected to voice opposition today to attempts to bring in performance-related pay.

They believe it will be included in a blueprint for higher education to be published next month with student appraisal one measure used to determine pay.

The Association of University Teachers said evidence showed similar pay schemes in the Civil Service discriminated against women and ethnic minority groups.