Dr Boston has advocated widespread reform of exams

Ken Boston, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority chief executive, earned a �118,312 salary in 2003-04.

This was boosted by a �19,500 performance bonus, and �104,699 in benefits such as free flights to Australia and rent-free accommodation.

Dr Boston, 61, arrived during the A-level grading crisis of 2002, when hundreds of scripts had to be reviewed.

'Assessment frenzy'

However, in terms of salary, Dr Boston is not the highest-paid QCA executive.

Jonathan Ford, appointed last year to lead the "modernisation" of exams, earned �128,750, but he did not receive anything on top of this.

Since becoming QCA chief executive, Dr Boston has described English schooling as an "assessment frenzy".

He has also called the GCSE and A-level marking system a "cottage industry", where individual teachers read through entire scripts at home.

He is trying to modernise the system. But this year changes to national curriculum testing resulted in many schools' Key Stage 3 English test results being delayed or incorrectly added up.

Upon arriving from his native Australia for the QCA role, Dr Boston made senior staff re-apply for their jobs. The workforce was cut from 603 to 570.

During 2003-04 the QCA had a gross total income of �92.3m.

A spokesman for the organisation said: "Over the last two years, Ken Boston has led a major restructuring of the QCA.

"We are now in a better position to modernise the exam and testing system and regulate the national curriculum."