PLANS for a radical overhaul of Britain?s education system were unveiled on Tuesday, including proposals to replace the current GCSE and A-level exams with a single diploma system.

An interim report by a working group set up to review education for pupils aged between 14 and 19 said the current system was confusing, left pupils without the necessary skills employers demanded, and put too great a burden of assessment on students and teachers.

Mike Tomlinson, the former chief schools inspector who headed the review, said the time had come to stop tinkering.

?We believe the status quo is not an option,? he told a news conference. ?Too many young people leave learning or fail to progress, too many are left unchallenged and constrained by the curriculum they are offered, and young people and their teachers are burdened by inflexible assessment.?

Critics have long argued that exam standards have dropped, with more than a fifth of A-level students winning A-grades, while according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) rankings, Britain lies 27th out of 30 developed countries for the number of pupils staying in school or training at 17.

The working group said the current GCSEs, A-levels and vocational qualifications should be merged into a wider, four-tier diploma, with harder but fewer exams which pupils will sit when they are ready, not necessarily when they are the right age.

A-levels would form part of the ?advanced? diploma tier with a six or seven-point grading scale, with GCSEs spread across the ?intermediate? and ?foundation? tiers.

All pupils would be expected to achieve at least level 2 competence in maths, communication and computer skills to meet needs of employers, and to undertake an extended project.

Schools Minister David Miliband said the report was ?ambitious in scope, exciting in its potential and practical in its focus?.

The plans, which would ?evolve? over the next 10 years if approved by the government, were given a cautious welcome by businesses and unions.

?Progress has been made in recent years but there is frustration amongst employers about the skills of those entering the labour market,? said Richard Greenhalgh chairman of Unilever UK. ?The interim report provides us with a road map which contains significant improvements.?

Eamonn O?Kane, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers? union, described the report ? the final version of which will be published in September ? as a mixed bag of positives, negatives and unknowns.

Michael Holden