Exam crisis: Teachers blamed for fiasco

The new head of the Government's exams watchdog delivered an astonishing attack on the country's leading headteachers yesterday – saying they were "ill-informed" and inflicting "untold and quite unnecessary damage" on the education system with their claims that A-level grades had been fixed.

Dr Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), said that many pupils got the grades "they earned" and many teachers did not understand the marking system.

He was speaking as the exams watchdog published a report claiming there was "no evidence" to substantiate claims by headteachers of malpractice during marking. Headteachers said they were they were "incandescent with rage" at his comments. Dr Boston, who took up his post seven days ago after being head of the education service in New South Wales, Australia, called for a stop to "ill-informed public discussion which has done untold and quite unnecessary damage to the education system of this country.

"I don't believe there is real substance to some of the extreme positions that have been taken," he added. "We must get back to dealing with evidence-based information and stop tilting at windmills. This frenzy must stop."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association (SHA), said: "I have never been in a frenzy in my life but I have a growing body of evidence from independent and state schools that says the QCA put pressure on the exam boards to raise grade boundaries."

A joint statement from SHA and the independent school headteachers' organisations – the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Association and the Girls' School Association – emphasised they had no evidence to link Estelle Morris, Secretary of State for Education, and her officials with applying that pressure.

But they indicated they would be giving evidence to Mike Tomlinson, the former chief schools inspector appointed yesterday to hold an independent inquiry into the fiasco, of QCA involvement in manipulating results. Headteachers also urged Mr Tomlinson to widen his inquiry to GCSEs after claims of "significant discrepancies" over marking. David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said his members believed "very strange results" at GCSE were caused by the poor performance of examiners.

Unveiling QCA's report yesterday, Dr Boston admitted it had not contacted any of the headteachers' organisations during the investigation. It had concentrated on interviewing Dr Ron McLone, chief executive of the Oxford and Cambridge and RSA Board (OCR), which is at the centre of the complaints. Headteachers say many pupils worthy of an A grade had been given U grades for their coursework – particularly in English, history and psychology. The report acknowledged Dr McLone had found it necessary to change grade boundaries in some subjects "to bring units into line with other awards". It added that "in 2002 the chairs of examiners were asked more frequently than in previous years to reconsider some of their judgments".

However, the investigation gave parents, pupils and teachers no cause "to have reason to doubt the validity of the awards they have received".

Only 979 of 181,000 candidates who sat A-levels with OCR achieved A, A, and U grades across three units. They were spread across 565 schools with 362 having one candidate in that category. The QCA decided the situation was "problematic in only a few schools". OCR has been ordered to re-mark the 979 papers.