Diplomas can't replace A-levels, exam chief warns 'barmy' Balls

The head of a major exam board has scathingly attacked the Government's education reforms.

Simon Lebus, chief executive of Cambridge Assessment, said Children's Secretary Ed Balls was "barmy" to think the Government's new diplomas could replace A-levels.

He accused ministers of sacrificing the quality of education to make results easier to measure for official targets. He questioned whether some A-level subjects and other equivalent qualifications were easier than others.

Mr Lebus, who is also chairman of the OCR exam board, run by Cambridge Assessment, spoke to the Standard as almost one million pupils in England - and 115,000 in London - await their GCSE and A-level results. Diploma grades are also due next month.

His remarks are another blow to the diplomas, which are already in trouble after only 12,000 pupils signed up for them rather than a projection of up to 50,000. OCR - one of England's three biggest exam boards -has invested in developing them for schools.

Diplomas combine practical skills and work experience with academic theory in subjects such as construction, media and engineering and were introduced last September.

Mr Balls has refused to guarantee a future for A-levels beyond a review in 2013. Mr Lebus dismissed his suggestion that diplomas could replace A-levels as "a fantasy".

"The diploma has a role but it's not something that's going to displace the existing qualifications and neither should it," he said. "It takes a long time to understand new qualifications. To introduce a major reform and expect it to displace existing provision within three or four years is essentially a barmy idea."

The Government has proposed so-called academic diplomas in languages, science and humanities, and diplomas will be worth more than three A-levels in university and league table points.

Education minister Iain Wright said: "A-levels rightly remain one of the most popular qualifications, and ministers have never said the diploma should replace them. Our reforms are not about swapping one qualification for another but about giving young people greater choice and flexibility, so they stay learning for longer and get the skills they need."

But Mr Lebus condemned the "political drive" to design qualifications as equivalent to A-levels and GCSEs.

Schools have been accused of steering pupils towards vocational courses because they were thought to be easier than GCSEs but equivalent to several in official league tables.

A higher-level diploma will be worth seven A*-C GCSEs, but only requires about the time to complete five or six. Mr Lebus believes this "distorts the way qualifications get designed and managed". He said: "We measure education at the expense of educational quality. That's not a very healthy thing."

He even suggested it could be false to compare A-level subjects. Cambridge University advises teenagers against taking more than one of 20 A-levels such as art and design, dance and media.

Mr Lebus also criticised the Government's plan to replace league tables with American-style report cards that rate schools on wider features. He said such an approach would only "magnify" the problems of league tables.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said exams watchdog Ofqual would "make sure qualifications of the same level are comparable so students, parents and teachers have confidence that their qualifications count".

Diplomas
Courses started last year for 14- to 19-year-olds in England, combining practical experience and theory. The first five diplomas were in engineering, construction and the built environment, information technology, creative and media, and society, health and development. Ministers say diplomas could replace A-levels and GCSEs as "the qualifications of choice" for teenagers.

School report cards
Schools could be awarded one overall grade from A to F based on features including exam results, truancy, pupils' progress and children's "well-being". Good exam results alone would not be enough for schools to achieve the top grade. Children's Secretary Ed Balls backs the idea, which is based on a scheme operating in the US.

Qualifications and credit framework
A scheme designed to simplify the "alphabet soup" of vocational qualifications by giving them a clear weighting based on the number of credits each is worth. One credit takes 10 hours of work to complete. The scheme builds on conformity between GCSEs, A-levels and other qualifications.