The moment for major reform is close at hand

The clamour for action is reaching a crescendo. Last year the percentage of A-level scripts awarded a top A grade reached a record 21.6 per cent - up 0.9 per cent on the year before. This year it is set to rise again.

The clamour for action is reaching a crescendo. Last year the percentage of A-level scripts awarded a top A grade reached a record 21.6 per cent - up 0.9 per cent on the year before. This year it is set to rise again.

What has happened is that introducing more modular assessment during term time has made it easier for teachers to coach their pupils into providing the right answers.

Also, as the former chief schools inspector Mike Tomlinson - who is heading a government inquiry into exam reform - has pointed out, questions are designed to make it easier for the markers to assess. He has called for more open-ended questions to stretch candidates' thinking skills.

Mr Tomlinson is floating the idea of dividing the A-grade into four quartiles so that universities can find out if their candidates are high-flyers or have just scraped an A-grade pass.

Dr Ellie Johnson-Searle, director of the Joint Council of Qualifications, the umbrella body for exam boards, is suggesting that admissions tutors ask candidates for the grades for each of their modules - as only five or six per cent obtain grade A's in all six.

Downing Street likes the idea of an A-star grade - as there is at GCSE - but this has been condemned by teachers' leaders who say it will devalue other passes.

A first step for reform should be adopting Mr Tomlinson's call for more searching questions - thus making it tougher to obtain an A grade. However, his idea that the questions should be more open-ended works better in exams like history and English.

There seems no valid reason why we should stick to a grading system devised decades ago for far fewer candidates. Why not scrap the present system and replace it with seven new grades - one more than at present? The top grade could be norm referenced (as all A-level grades used to be) so only the top five or 10 per cent obtain it.