A YORK head teacher says the A-level fiasco, which resulted in many students having their results upgraded, was due to the volume of assessment work facing exam groups.

In a newsletter to parents Hugh Porter, of Joseph Rowntree School, said exams groups were clearly overstretched.

The controversy, which erupted in September, led to thousands of papers being re-marked, following allegations that examiners downgraded them at the last minute to counter claims that A-levels have been "dumbed down".

The row blew up after schools, both state and independent, realised students who regularly scored As got Ds, Es and even unclassifieds - fail grades - in their course work.

Only 2,000 A-level and AS level exams were upgraded, fewer than had been expected.

All of the changes have understood to have come from the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations Board (OCR), with none from the other two boards.

In the mammoth regrade operation no pupils from Joseph Rowntree School were among the 2,000 upgraded in the investigation. A handful of pupils at York's Fulford School had their A-level grades increased following the investigation.

University places for the Fulford students who received increased grades were not affected.

In the letter, Mr Porter said some individual grades of pupils at the school were upgraded, but this was not unusual. He said: "The whole episode shows that the exam groups are clearly overstretched, with the greatly increased volume of assessment in recent years.

"It is also clear that we need a transparent definition of standards at A-level. It is no good trying to maintain previous pass and grade levels in a new system of AS/A2 which enables students to improve their performance."

Mr Porter said he had great sympathy with students who had worked very hard over two years, but who had then fallen victim to consequences of too rapid and untested changes in the assessment systems.

He said: "I am pleased that lessons have been learned and improvements will be made in the future."

Updated: 12:18 Saturday, November 02, 2002