A-level collision course

The A-level grading crisis has moved into another phase with a rift forming between the Education Secretary Estelle Morris and head of the exams watchdog Sir William Stubbs.

He has accused her of pre-empting the judgement of Mike Tomlinson's independent inquiry, due to be published on Friday.

She has denied any intention to prejudice the outcome of the inquiry, but Sir William is accusing her of acting on the basis of there being just one outcome.

By Mike Baker BBC education correspondent

This is an extraordinary series of developments in a story which is already pretty extraordinary.

I think at the bottom of it will be a desire to sort it out as soon as possible because certainly in schools they're becoming very concerned about whether or not there will still be confidence in the A-levels.

I was not able to contact Mike Tomlinson on Wednesday but I understand from others that he is very concerned about it and I've even heard from one source that he was close to resigning over it.

But we have to wait and see what he says for himself.

But at bottom this comes down to two completely different interpretations.

Sir William Stubbs saying this effectively amounts to pre-empting the inquiry and the government saying "no, all we were doing was exploring all the possible avenues because it would be foolish of us not to, so that when we do get the result, which is expected on Friday, we can act quickly".

Resignations possible

It is certainly wise to make contingency plans. I think the question here is whether it was right or not for the secretary of state to get involved and whether it was right to approach the exam boards about this possible outcome.

Certainly you would expect officials at the department to start working on a number of different possibilities, whether it was regarding just one exam board or the three exam boards for England, or whether it was contacting universities about changing the admissions arrangements.

But the heart of it is whether it was right for the minister to get involved.

It seems the exam boards, who had a very crucial meeting with the Qualifications Authority at the beginning of March, came away from that with the impression that Sir William was telling them they had really got to be careful about making sure the grades didn't go up too much.

Estelle Morris: Denies pre-empting inquiry

He denies that is what he was trying to say and there have been a series of letters that have gone backwards and forwards.

He is clearly saying you have just got to keep in line with the general standards in the past.

They seem to have come away with the idea that actually he was telling them they have got to keep in line with the pass rates which is a different matter - not a matter of keeping standards together.

It's vital that the secretary of state and the chief adviser on the curriculum and examination can work together.

But after this, it is very hard to see how they can work together, so it would seem that one or other could not carry on.