GORDON Brown today refused to guarantee a long-term future for A-levels.

The Prime Minister said "the new system" of diplomas for teenagers is being developed and will be tested alongside the traditional exams.

Under repeated questioning from Conservative leader David Cameron, Mr Brown declined to say whether A-levels will survive a Government review scheduled to report in 2013.

The Prime Minister appeared to suggest that the review of secondary school exams could begin earlier, in 2012.

In the Commons, Mr Cameron pressed the PM on the future for A-levels.

He said: "Your Schools Secretary says there will be an open-minded review and he can't guarantee their future.

"So will you contradict him and tell us that A-levels are here to stay.

"I want A-levels to stay. I think they are a great qualification. What do you want?"

Mr Brown replied: "A-levels are staying.

"We made a decision that until 2012 diplomas will go side by side with A-levels and then we will make the decision about the future. That's right for the country.

"It is right to test out the new system and to make the decision in 2012."

In October last year, Schools Secretary Ed Balls fuelled speculation that A-levels could be abolished by refusing to guarantee that the exams will still exist beyond the review.

Qualification

In what amounted to a major policy shift, Mr Balls suggested that diplomas could replace GCSEs and A-levels as "the qualification of choice" for England's teenagers.

He announced that a full-scale review of all courses for 14 to 19-year-olds will be held in 2013, once the diplomas are up and running.

Asked directly whether he could give such a guarantee that GCSEs and A-levels will survive the review, Mr Balls replied: "I'm not going to give you any guarantee about the outcome of that 2013 review."

He said parents, pupils and teachers would decide which courses would prove the most popular.

In 2004, ex-chief inspector of schools Sir Mike Tomlinson recommended that ministers replace A-levels and GCSEs with a new diploma system combining both vocational and academic study.

The aim was to overcome the view of work-related courses as inferior to academic A-levels, and to encourage more teenagers to stay on in education.

In 2005, Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly, the then Education Secretary, rejected the Tomlinson plan, proposing to keep A-levels and GCSEs and develop diplomas as mainly vocational options.

Teachers, academics and some of the Government's own advisers were furious that the academic-vocational divide would continue.

The new diplomas now combine theory with practical work-related learning. They will cover traditional academic disciplines including science and languages as well as media studies and hair and beauty.

In all, 17 diplomas will be phased in, with the first five being taught to nearly 40,000 teenagers from September this year.

A diploma will be worth the equivalent of three and a half A-levels to teenagers applying to university.