Exam crisis: 'Heads will roll' if results were manipulated

Estelle Morris bowed yesterday to mounting pressure for an independent inquiry into the A-level marking fiasco, with ministerial aides warning that "heads will roll" if allegations are proved that this summer's pass rate was manipulated.

The Secretary of State for Education announced the move just hours after Sir William Stubbs, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), admitted for the first time that "something untoward" had happened over this year's exam results. The QCA's report into the crisis to be published today will confirm that A-level grade boundaries were raised late in the marking process this summer, heightening speculation that it was done to avoid a row over standards if the pass rate proved too high.

Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools, will now investigate allegations by headteachers that the QCA put "direct pressure" on the exam boards to increase the boundaries to avoid claims of grade inflation. He will also rule on whether all A-level grades should be reissued if the grade boundaries are found to have been set unfairly.

Ms Morris distanced herself and her fellow ministers from any attempt to influence marking this summer. "It is a fundamental principle that the Government has no role in this, nor should it have," she said. "It would be entirely wrong for us or any government of any persuasion to get involved in any aspect of marking, assessing or grading students. Neither I, nor any of my ministers, have had any conversation of this type with examining bodies. Nor will they ever do so."

She said the accusation against the QCA was a "most serious allegation" which she wanted to be investigated "speedily and independently". The exams fiasco is the second crisis to hit Ms Morris's department this month, coming only two weeks after she was forced to make a U-turn over criminal record checks on teachers. Her department's insistence that teachers could not take up their posts unless they had been vetted led to thousands of children missing classes at the start of term.

Mr Tomlinson has been told to report within a week on the key allegation by headteachers claiming that the QCA put pressure on the exam boards to mark down papers because of fears of a political row if the increase in the pass rate was too high. The QCA has consistently denied this.

The controversy began when leaders of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), which represents top public school heads, complained about the marking of coursework in English, history and psychology exams by the Oxford and Cambridge and RSA board (OCR). Later they said the complaints were far more widespread and covered all the three major exam boards.

QCA officials said today's report would show that "something had gone awry" with A-levels. Sources later confirmed that the report would reveal the grade boundaries had been raised.

Ms Morris's decision to set up the independent inquiry was welcomed by heads and teachers' leaders last night.

A joint statement from the HMC, the Girls' School Association and the Secondary Heads Association, which represents state school heads, said: "We are very pleased that Estelle Morris has appreciated the gravity of the situation and has acted so fast to address the concerns which we share."

The Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said he was "sickened" that someone appeared to have been playing politics with young people's futures. "Whoever is responsible should pay for it with their own future," he added.