The dissatisfaction with the exam system emerged as Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, prepares this week to reject key proposals in the biggest planned reform of England’s education system in 50 years.

The findings point to a showdown after unions gave warning yesterday that teachers will be “in despair” if Mrs Kelly rules against large parts of the proposed Tomlinson diploma, which envisages the scrapping of A levels and GCSEs.

In the Winmark poll commissioned by The Times, 45 per cent of secondary heads said that they would rather pupils sat other exams, including the International Baccalaureate, than GCSEs and A levels. Almost a third of all heads and 23 per cent of secondary heads polled said that standards to pass GCSEs and A levels had fallen in the past seven years.

It emerged yesterday that the cost of running England’s exam system was £610 million for 2003-04. The figure, the first official assessment of the cost of GCSEs and A levels, was published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the exams watchdog.

Last October Sir Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of England’s schools, proposed a ten-year programme of reform that visualised a four-level diploma with literacy, numeracy and information technology at its core to replace GCSEs and A levels by 2014.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary and former Education Secretary, was said to be enthusiastic about the plans.

Recently Sir Anthony Greener, the chairman of the QCA, and David Bell, the chief inspector for schools in England, have endorsed the proposals.

Head teachers fear that Mrs Kelly will not embrace the reforms but cherry-pick ideas instead.

Marius Frank, head of Bedminster Down School, Bristol, said that full implementation of the Tomlinson proposals was crucial to England continuing as a leading economy. “Young people today need skills that our generation didn’t need,” he said. “It’s a different workplace environment. You have to manage yourself in a totally different way. It’s for 21st-century learning.”

Tony Blair and Mrs Kelly, however, have made it clear that the Government will leave the “gold standard” of A levels and GCSEs untouched for fear of alienating middle-class voters so shortly before an election.

Instead, Mrs Kelly is expected to advocate a vocational work-related diploma while stretching the more able sixth- form students by offering them university courses.

Yesterday David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said that the move would be “totally unacceptable” and undermine plans for an “overarching diploma”.

Mr Hart said that by keeping A levels the Government would undermine efforts to overcome the current stigma of vocational courses held by both business and the employment community.

“Any suggestion that we have a vocational diploma and not a Tomlinson diploma system would be regarded with horror, not only by school heads but by college principals,” he said. “Tomlinson spent a very great length of time trying to ensure that he got all the major players on board and he achieved that.

“If the Government is going to cherry-pick and undermine the integrity of the package, then many people in schools and colleges will be in despair.”

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said that the Tomlinson plan would also cut the cost of public exams, with more internal assessment.

Today’s report on the cost of GCSEs and A levels, written by PricewaterhouseCoopers for QCA, showed that last year £370 million was spent on organisations providing the exams and £240 million went on paying staff for their time marking scripts.

Mr Dunford said: “This is a waste of resources, which could be put to far better use in school and college budgets.”

Three quarters of the 757 heads polled said that Labour had improved education. The same number said that life had become more difficult for teachers. Almost two thirds thought teaching had become less attractive since Labour came to power in 1997.

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