The investigation would be carried out by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, headed by Sir Ron Dearing.In reply to a question from David Lidington, Tory MP for Aylesbury, about whether there had been real improvement in exam standards, he said: “I am agnostic. Young people get these qualifications each year and immediately there is a debate about whether their currency has been devalued.”Labour MPs accused Mr Woodhead, who is independent of the Government, of being a Conservative stooge after a clash over the amount of resources available to schools.Mr Woodhead said in his annual report that overall the provision of resources was satisfactory. Teachers and pupils say results are improving because they are working harder. Mr Woodhead said he was talking to Government exam advisers about setting up an inquiry which he hoped would report in about nine months.

We shall be involved in the choice of pilots for the inner cities.”Labour-controlled Birmingham is already pioneering school performance targets.Under Mr Redwood’s scheme, primary schools would have to agree literacy and numeracy targets while secondary school would aim to increase the proportion of pupils getting good GCSE grades in English, maths and science.In Birmingham, by contrast, schools are asked to volunteer for their scheme.Meanwhile, an inquiry into whether GCSE and A-level standards have slipped was proposed last night by Chris Woodhead, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Schools.Mr Woodhead told the Commons Education Select Committee that he wanted to end the annual debate over standards at GCSE and A-level exams, which start next month for thousands of 16- and 18-year-olds.Traditionalists say the exams are getting easier. Last night a spokesman said: “The department encourages all schools to set targets. All schools should set performance targets and try to improve on them, the Prime Minister said yesterday The first pilots will begin in schools later this year. John Major’s announcement follows one by John Redwood, Secretary of State for Wales, this month in which he said all Welsh schools should be setting targets by the turn of the century.

Mr Redwood issued a consultation paper which said schools that failed to meet their targets would receive an immediate visit from inspectors.
The Department for Education in England has not so far followed Mr Redwood’s lead. According to a parliamentary written reply yesterday, he was informed last month that the contract would not be extended and his existing arrangements with the Home Office were changed so that after April 1996 he will be on a monthly rolling contract.However, it appears that behind the scenes some greater indications of confidence have been given to the director- general, who as head of the new Prison Service Agency has undoubtedly taken the blame for the jails’ ills that would otherwise have been levelled at ministers.In a letter to governors written yesterday, Mr Lewis, who is currently touring maximum security jails and boot camps in the United States, said he was able to confirm he had agreed to continue as director-general for up to two years – until April 1997 – and that his departure in the meantime was subject to a year’s notice either side.. We want and need someone who is going to be there for some time, who knows what they are doing and who enjoys the confidence of everybody.”Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: “The contractual mess is a logical outcome of an inexperienced political appointment.”Mr Lewis’s initial three-year contact, due to end in January 1996, contained an option for a two-year extension to January 1988. That would have been a tacit admission that the controversial appointment of a man who had no experience of prisons had failed.But yesterday Mr Howard was attacked for introducing instability into a service already suffering from low morale, prison overcrowding and the recognised difficulties of privatisation.Terry McLaren, vice-chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “He’s on probation, it is as simple as that And that is very unhelpful. The former television executive has only gained a three-month extension to his £125,000-a-year agreement to run the country’s jails, before going on what has been described as a “one more escape and you’re out” monthly contract.
As shock at the unprecedented contract reverberated around the Prison Service, Home Office sources suggest that the new deal is a political compromise.Michael Howard would have been open to criticism for granting a long extension to Mr Lewis’s contract following the embarrassing escapes.On the other hand, he would have been subject to ridicule if he had terminated the contract.