Britain's biggest exam board hastily withdrew a No 1 hit by Gary Glitter from its recommended GCSE listening list after protests that children should not have to study the work of a convicted paedophile.

AQA - the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - was criticised after The Sun reported on its inclusion of Glitter's 1970s chart-topper I'm The Leader Of The Gang on a list of “related listening” for GCSE music coursework.

The former glam rocker spent nearly three years in a Vietnam jail for sex offences but his name was spotted on a paper sent out to thousands of teenagers on November 1 by a deputy head teacher who told the newspaper that it was "completely inappropriate".

The unnamed teacher, from Windsor, Berkshire, had told the newspaper that he had asked the board to withdraw it, but had been told it was too late. The father of two said: “He’s a convicted paedophile jailed for sexually abusing kids. It's completely inappropriate to recommend him as listening material.”

Within hours, AQA said that it had decided to recall the paper and reissue the listing list without the Glitter song. An AQA spokeswoman said: “We regret any offence that has been caused by its inclusion and we will be contacting our centres and recalling the paper.”

Teachers' organisations were among those protesting against the song's inclusion on the list. Christine Blower, head of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Whatever Gary Glitter’s place is in the history of glam rock, including a record of his in an exam is not only crass but completely unacceptable.”

Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools registered with this examination board depend on the board to choose appropriate texts, and will have been dismayed at the choice of a Gary Glitter song.

“No teacher should be in the position of having to discuss this man’s work with the young people in their class, and all teachers will have rejected the idea of using this material. I welcome the withdrawal of this song, which should never have been included in the first place.”

Campaigners had also warned that Glitter could earn royalties from additional sales. Dr Michele Elliot, director of children’s charity Kidscape, said the song’s inclusion sent “totally the wrong message to paedophiles’ victims.”

“Thousands of children take this exam. If they buy his song it could be a nice earner for him,” she said.

Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, returned to England in August after serving a jail term in Vietnam for abusing two young girls and was ordered to sign on the sex offenders register. In 1999 he was jailed in the UK for possessing child porn images on his computer.

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