A-level maths will be made simpler

Exam chiefs have unveiled plans to make maths A-levels simpler as the number of candidates falls and fears grow that the subject could disappear from many universities.

The senior exam regulator will today launch a new syllabus for the course, allowing more time for students to master the basics of pure maths and with fewer options in applied maths.

The current A-level, launched in 2000, was blamed for overburdeningstudents and causing numbersattempting the exam to plummet by a fifth since 2001.

But Dr Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, insisted the move was not the start of widely anticipated plans to replace the A-level with an "English baccalaureate".

Dr Boston said: "It's less content, but all the tough stuff has been kept. Mathematicians in universities can be confident they will get better prepared people than they got before."

His comments followed publication of the interim findings of the Tomlinson Inquiry into the future of the exam system, seen by some critics as signalling the end of the A-level.

However Dr Boston said that while the current A-level needed reform, it should not be scrapped.

His intervention will be interpreted by many as an attempt to halt the growing momentum behind a move towards a baccalaureate, modelled on the French exam system, replacing GCSEs and A-levels.

Dr Boston said: "The A-level endures as a world-class qualification.

"This has changed and developed over time and it will change and develop again. An A-level at A grade here is really first-year university standard in other countries - no question about it.

"It must be a growth on the Alevel not something done because somehow the A-level has failed. It has not failed. We shouldn't try to fix something that isn't broken."

Referring to the A-level fiasco last year, when thousands of sixth formers had their papers re-graded after exam boards marked them down to prevent them appearing too easy, Dr Boston said: "The A-level has been here for 50 years. We had a problem last year that was an aberration - nothing to do with the standard of the A-level - or its quality."

Mr Boston is charged with ensuring there is no repeat of that chaos which prompted the resignation of the then Education Secretary, Estelle Morris.

He said: "Things appear to be going very well. That is something I am monitoring every minute."