Morris is urged to create single body to govern examinations

The three English exam boards should be replaced by one national body, the man who was David Blunkett's senior adviser as Secretary of State for Education says today.

Conor Ryan, Mr Blunkett's special adviser for his four years at the department, says in an article for The Independent there is no justification for having three competing boards.

The future of the exam boards is likely to be tackled in the second stage of the independent inquiry by the former chief schools inspector Mike Tomlinson into allegations that this year's A-level results were "fixed" to avoid a political row. His initial report is due to be published tomorrow. "Competition has produced little innovation and their credibility was poor before recent allegations," writes Mr Ryan. "A single national board would set comparable standards and syllabuses for all students."

Pressure is growing on Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, to wind up the three boards – the Oxford and Cambridge and RSA, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance and Edexcel.

"Why should we have three exam boards which are private companies that do things like setting grade boundaries by nudges and winks?" said Graham Lane, chairman of the Local Government Association's education committee.

The exam boards and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Government's own exams watchdog, are at the centre of the A-level "fixing" allegations. Headteachers claim they colluded to mark down thousands of A-level papers to avoid a massive rise in A grades this summer. They claim the actions were politically motivated to avoid a row over grade inflation while the exam boards say it was done to ensure exam standards were maintained.