School league tables have become the latest casualty of the chaos in this year's A-level results.

This year's secondary school performance tables are to be postponed - and the Department for Education has indicated that it could be next year before this summer's results are published.

The tables, showing how schools performed in GCSEs and A-levels, were scheduled for publication this autumn.

Estelle Morris has put this year's league tables on hold

But with so much uncertainty remaining about the validity of results, this year's league tables have been put on hold.

The Education Secretary Estelle Morris has said that the school tables will be published as soon as she is confident in the reliability of the results.

Teachers' union leader, Eamonn O'Kane, said that the decision was "inevitable after the debacle of this year's results - and when it is still unclear how many papers will need to be re-graded".

Doubts

"It would have been quite wrong to proceed when so many doubts continue about grades," said Mr O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.

John Dunford says publishing the league tables would have been "daft"

Head teachers' leader John Dunford said that "league tables cause enough damage when they're accurate - to produce them under the current circumstances would be daft".

"This would be a good opportunity to scrap them, as we have suggested many times," said Mr Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association.

The independent inquiry into claims of grade fixing has not yet published details of how students' exams should be re-graded.

And in terms of gathering information for the A-level performance tables, the timetable is already weeks behind.

Lack of trust

Students might not know the results of any re-grading until mid-October - and the collation of school results could not begin until grades had been finalised.

Teachers' trust in the exam system has been severely strained by the problems with grading.

And there had been concerns from heads about the publication of results which were in dispute.

Even when the results are finalised, Mr O'Kane says that "schools which have suffered might still ask how sound these results are".

It still remains unknown how many of this year's A-level papers will have to be re-graded - with further details expected on Wednesday.

The head of the independent inquiry, Mike Tomlinson, will explain how the re-grading should be applied by the exam boards.

But there could still be further questions to be answered about the quality of marking and the reliability of results.

There have even been concerns about the results for tests taken by 14 year olds this year, which are to be included in performance tables for the first time.

Almost half the tests taken by pupils at Woodhey High School in Ramsbottom in Bury had to have their grades changed, after problems with the initial marking.

Head teacher Martin Braidley said that schools could be adversely affected if "rogue" results were published.