Leading article: A stronger case for A-level reform

We welcome the news that ministers have, with some qualifications, been converted to the International Baccalaureate. Tony Blair is said to favour the IB being made more readily available to state school pupils and Alan Johnson sees it as a viable alternative to A-levels. It is true that the IB offers a broader and, some would say, more taxing alternative to A-levels and as such will stretch and challenge pupils more. But the danger is that the Government's obsession with choice will lead to it neglecting much-needed reforms to GCSE and A-levels that the Education Secretary acknowledges will still be the main route to higher education for the vast majority of 16- to 18-year-olds.

Already there is evidence of dithering over A-level reforms. No one yet is quite clear more than two years after former chief schools inspector Sir Mike Tomlinson's inquiry into the examination system exactly how the exams will be made harder. There could be more difficult questions for everyone or there could be a new A* grade so that universities are able to select the brightest candidates for oversubscribed courses from the increasing number of youngsters with three grade As.

The danger is that the Government will heave a collective sigh of relief if the IB is made more widely available and think it has done the job of making the examination system more challenging. But it will only have made the system harder for a few. And it won't have done anything to halt the advance of the new Cambridge Pre-U exam - seen as traditional A-levels without coursework - advocated by 200 of our leading independent schools.

If these 200 do break away from the A-level system, it could spell disaster for state schools because university admissions tutors will regard these schools as offering an inferior exam. The message to be taken from any widening of the availability of the IB in the state sector should be that it strengthens the case for urgent reform of the A-level system rather than diminishes it. These worries would never have arisen if the Government had implemented the main recommendation of the Tomlinson inquiry - that there should be an overarching diploma covering both academic and vocational qualifications and giving a broader sixth-form education to all pupils.