Estelle Morris’s prompt response to this year’s problems with Curriculum 2000 is but a quick fix which may well make matters worse (“Things an only get better” TES, July 13).

The AS-level modules are to be variously:

• scooped up into a single, final, first-year three-hour paper (what happens to the coursework module?)
• or still available as separate modules in JanuaryJune for those who still want to do it that way
• or deferred - the London Oratory School model - to be taken by second year students alongside their final A2 modules examined at the full A level standard

• These options are a nightmare scenario for comparability in grading, and the London Oratory model in particular highlights the fundamental flaw in the original Dearing fudge (as pointed out in the College of Teachers paper, Testing times, a year ago: www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk): the inconsistency of a two-stage examination assessed at different levels, and now to be taken in a variety of modes at different times. How can we then share Estelle Morris’s confidence that “A-levels remain a crucial benchmark of quality”?

  We can only hope that phase 2 of the David HargreavesQCA review will undertake a more fundamental review of the present mess, with re-consideration of a European model in the light of Estelle Morris’s recent suggestion of a final post-16 “leaving certificate” - grouping a wider range of subjects examined at a single level.

  Keith Davidson
  Hemel Hempstead

  www.kd.boxmoor@btinternet.com

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