Gavin Boyd said the CCEA had been closely following the debate

The phasing out of A-levels and GCSEs and the introduction of a diploma has been recommended in a report by former chief schools inspector Mike Tomlinson.

But Gavin Boyd, chief executive of Northern Ireland's education body, the CCEA, said it should not be presumed the new system would automatically be introduced in the province.

The CCEA said GCSEs and A levels remained top class qualifications highly regarded by students, teachers, universities and employers.

It added: "We must be careful that any attempt to replace them brings measurable improvements to the whole system."

Mr Boyd said the CCEA was committed to ensuring that Northern Ireland had a top class qualifications system that gave young people the opportunity to achieve through a range of relevant and challenging pathways.

Mike Tomlinson presented far-reaching proposals for English schools

"We have been closely following the work of Mike Tomlinson's working group over the past two years and have already made a number of contributions to the debate," he said.

"But while it is absolutely right that we should continue to check that our qualifications structure is fit for purpose, it should not be presumed that the changes being put forward today will automatically take place here in Northern Ireland."

Mr Boyd said the CCEA had spent time in recent months speaking to teachers, business leaders and other interested groups in Northern Ireland as to how the 14 -19 qualifications structure might be developed locally.

He said a report was due to be sent to the Stormont education minister by the end of the year.

Work-related qualifications

Much of what was being proposed by Mr Tomlinson and his group was aimed at broadening the choice and range of experiences and qualifications available to young people. It was an approach which the CCEA would agree with, he said.

Mr Boyd pointed out that Northern Ireland was on the verge of implementing a new curriculum that put an increased emphasis on giving young people the knowledge and skills they would need to become successful as individuals, as citizens and as contributors to the economy and environment.

In the near future Learning for Life and Work would become a compulsory part of the post-primary curriculum.

He said the CCEA had also been at the centre of developing and launching a series of new work-related qualifications at a range of levels.

Mr Boyd said: "With this work already well under way to broaden the portfolio of post-14 qualifications we need to carefully consider, along with the rest of our education partners, how developments in this area should best be taken forward in Northern Ireland."

In the blueprint for secondary education in England, published on Monday, students will have to pass tests in three "core" skills needed for the workplace - literacy, maths and information and communications technology.

Improving vocational education - and coupling this with basic skills - was presented as a way of keeping those "disengaged from learning" within the education system.

GCSEs, which would be absorbed into the "intermediate" level of the diploma structure, would be downgraded to a "stepping stone and a progress check, rather than the present artificial break-point".

These qualifications would no longer be marked by external examiners - and throughout the system there would be an attempt to streamline the "repetitive and burdensome" number of exam units - which costs schools an average of �150,000 per year.

The full rigour of externally-marked exams would be reserved for the advanced level - which would become the dominant, end-of-school academic qualification.