Why more pupils will flunk the harder new GCSE

Ministers want new "functional skills" tests in English and maths from 2010 to ensure school-leavers master the three Rs.

No one will be able to gain a C grade or above unless they pass them.

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But England's biggest exam board - the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - claims the resulting increase in failure rates could be a "very grave injustice" for pupils in the first few years of the tougher tests.

They say it means school-leavers will struggle to compete for jobs and university places against their predecessors, with interviewers unlikely to recognise the difference in standards.

The alliance's deputy director general Andrew Bird said the functional skills tests would effectively "change the standard" of GCSEs, adding: "From our modelling, it will suppress the pass rate at A*-C at GCSE."

This suggests that many pupils currently achieve Cs without mastering what the Government believes are "the basics" of literacy and numeracy.

In written evidence to the Commons schools select committee, the AQA claimed that reforms were "a major concern", as they would distort school league tables.

It added: "More important, however, is the potential for very grave injustice to be done to the young people affected, as they compete with those from the year before for the same jobs and places in further and higher education."

The new "functional skills" element is likely to take the form of separate tests that pupils will have to pass in order to be awarded a grade C or higher in their English and maths GCSEs.

It follows employers' complaints that even well- qualified schoolleavers lack basic skills in maths and English, and concerns that GCSEs were too easy after years of "dumbing down". The first GCSE courses incorporating the extra tests would start in 2010 and end in 2012.

To pass the functional English skills test, pupils will be expected to spell properly and use correct grammar and accurate punctuation.

They will also have to master reading, listening and speaking skills, through giving clear presentations, responding to letters of complaint and taking part in discussions.

For functional maths, pupils will be expected to understand fractions and percentages, find the area, perimeter and volume of common shapes, and use metric and imperial measures.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families denied that functional skills would make GCSEs harder.

He said: "This will simply ensure that along with good subject knowledge, pupils must also show that they have a strong grasp of the basics - for example, both knowing how to work out compound interest as a paper exercise, and understanding how to apply that to a business loan or a mortgage."

Last summer, the number of pupils gaining top GCSE grades rose for a 19th successive year, with almost one in five papers awarded an A* or A.

The proportion of A* to C grades rose 0.9 percentage points to 63.3 per cent while A and A* grades increased 0.4 percentage points to 19.5 per cent.