The English secondary school league tables, already postponed because of the A-level results dispute, are set to face further delay.

Although the GCSE results and test results for 14 year olds will be published on 23 January, last summer's A-level results will not be included.

The government now expects them to be published early in April.

The secondary school league tables had been due for publication in the autumn term.

But in October, the prolonged dispute over the grades and marks awarded to students forced the Department for Education and Skills to announce a postponement.

At that stage, an inquiry into the exam problems by former chief inspector, Mike Tomlinson, had still to be completed.

And there was disquiet about the reliability of the results that had been awarded.

Disputed marks

But the rescheduled publication of secondary tables has still not left enough time to include A-level results.

"With an exercise on the scale of performance tables, we could not hope to recover the delay in checking whilst retaining original publication schedules," said an education department spokesperson.

When the A-level tables are published, it remains to be seen whether all schools will be satisfied with the final awards from exam boards.

Even though the Tomlinson inquiry examined allegations of grade-fixing, schools complained that the issue of disputed marking for coursework had never been resolved.

This year's league tables will show performance in national tests taken by 14 year olds.

But these were also subject to sporadic claims of "rogue" marking - and the ranking of schools could raise hackles in schools where results were disputed.