RUTH KELLY, the Education Secretary, has raised fresh doubts over the future of A levels by promising to reconsider a “general diploma” in 2008.

In February, she rejected proposals from Sir Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools, to replace A levels and GCSEs with a continental-style exam system.

But yesterday Ms Kelly said a general diploma at A level would be re-examined, suggesting that a modified Tomlinson plan could be implemented.

Ms Kelly said: “I said that in 2008 we would review how the system was operating and we would look particularly at whether we could achieve a consensus with employers and HE [higher education] about whether there should be a general diploma.”

A White Paper on education for 14 to 19-year-olds, published in February, promised to look again only at “what, if anything” would improve A-level courses.

Education Department officials said that Ms Kelly’s comments were “entirely consistent” with the White Paper. Tony Blair had said during the election campaign that A levels were “too narrow” and praised the International Baccalaureate for its broader subject range.

Teachers’ leaders had criticised Ms Kelly for rejecting Sir Mike’s plan to replace GCSEs and A levels with a diploma in favour of supplementing the existing exam system with mainly vocational diplomas, and only at GCSE level.

Ms Kelly rejected a diploma for A levels because she said there was no consensus among schools, universities and employers on the issue.

Professor Alan Smithers, an educationist at the University of Buckingham, said yesterday: “These comments are prolonging the uncertainty over the future of qualifications at 16 to 19. That itself has to be a bad thing.”

But David Hart, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “I would have hoped for a more fundamental review . . . But to get a commitment that a general diploma — that the overarching diploma for post-16 studies is the number one issue for 2008 — is at least a step in the right direction.”

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