Students in "house arrest"

Some are having to sleep overnight at the homes of teachers because they don't have the time to sit all their exams on the scheduled day.

The desperate move is to ensure that fellow students don't pass on vital information about question papers.

Now, one college principal has welcomed a Government decision which means new Education Skills Secretary Estelle Morris conducting an urgent inquiry into the growing list of complaints from staff and students.

The move comes as 17-year-old students in Bury near the end of a gruelling 12-part examination in four or five AS-level subjects.

The new exams have been described as the most fundamental reform to A-level qualifications for half a century. Confirming local instances of "overnight supervision", Holy Cross College principal Mr Mike O'Hare said: "First-year students have to take a vast number of exams.

"The new modular approach is putting students and staff under more pressure than I can remember throughout all my years in teaching."

Mr O'Hare stressed: "I am not opposed to the broadening of the curriculum.

"But I'm not certain that all the implications of this have been thought through clearly.

"Students who are doing four subjects could be completing 12 modules which puts them under considerable strain. I certainly welcome the inquiry."

One Bury student was scheduled to take three exams on the same day, at 9am, 1pm and 6pm.

A colleague explained: "He felt it was too much in one day, and had to stay at the home of a teacher overnight to avoid finding out about the question paper.

"He took the exam the following day."

Mr Keith Richards, who is headteacher of Bury Grammar School (Boys), acknowledged there had been examples of exam times clashing.

"The biggest problems are likely to occur in the largest sixth form institutions where they are offering a huge range of AS-level and A-level courses.

"Thankfully, we haven't had difficulties in making arrangements but that's largely down to the efficiency of our examination officer."

"However, there are a lot of issues to be addressed.

"I think we're being over-examined."

Mr John Nicholson, Bury branch secretary of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) said: "This is yet another of many initiatives we've been bombarded with.

"The students now do three exams at the end of the first year and this imposes increased pressure on them and, inevitably, the staff."

He added that a questionnaire was being distributed nationally to lecturers, seeking their views on the impact of the new AS-level exams.