So now, it seems, A-levels - the 'gold standard' of our education system for so many years - could be scrapped altogether. I suppose it is one way of trying to sweep the unseemly row over grade-fixing under the carpet.

Whether it's actually the best thing for young people and their education is another matter. And one thing's for sure: it won't help those youngsters whose future has already been plunged into uncertainty by the row one iota.

Initially, when the first public schools began to complain about bizarre and unfair results, it was tempting to dismiss it as toffs whinging because their children hadn't got the grades they were entitled to after all the money spent on their education.

Then state schools began to join in the chorus of complaints. Soon, it was clear there was something very seriously amiss as student after student in private and state sector whose coursework had been rated excellent by their own teachers found it had been apparently marked down by external examiners.

The suspicion grew that exam boards, under pressure from government to stem the rise in A-grades which were threatening to devalue A-levels themselves, had been undermarking coursework to bring down the overall grades.

Not so, thundered the Qualifications and Curriculums Authority (QCA), one of those dreadful quangos accountable to no one but themselves that seem to have mushroomed under the protective wing of New Labour. It's own initial investigation amounted to a whitewash, claiming it was teachers who were to blame, for not understanding the requirements of course work.

Now teachers say they have evidence the QCA itself was "involved" in manipulating grades. And so the sorry saga has gone on, with all the while a white-faced and desperate education secretary Estelle Morris squirming and wriggling ever more uncomfortably in the hotseat.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Estelle. Hard not to get the impression she's a puppet dancing to somebody else's tune - a tune she herself is not overly proud of.

The truth is that when it comes to A-level results, the politicians have found themselves on the horns of a difficult dilemma. Results have to keep improving so that politicians can demonstrate the progress being made in schools. But they can't improve too quickly or we all start talking about how the exams are being devalued.

It is a genuine dilemma, and it may well be that the time has come for a complete overhaul of what is probably the most important examination many young people will ever take.

Yet now is not the time for Ms Morris to start talking of scrapping A-levels altogether in favour of a more broad-based, baccalaureate-style system (a kind of AS level with knobs on).

There have been so many changes in the way our children are taught already recently that it's a wonder anyone knows what they are doing any more. This, on top of all the rest, will probably be enough to have already-demoralised teachers and headteachers sobbing and tearing their hair out.

And if the aim is to deflect attention away from the grading row, it won't work. If it turns out that results were manipulated, it is a disgrace. Even if A-levels were getting easier, students can only be expected to perform against the criteria they were given. Changing the goalposts mid-way through would be blatantly unfair, no matter on whose 'authority' it was done.

We owe it to all the young people who may have been affected to get to the bottom of this sordid story, and fast.

Then we can begin to think about how to make our exam system better.

Updated: 11:00 Wednesday, September 25, 2002