Education: Science exams are going to get harder

The regulator has concerns about the standard of the exams due to be brought in next year to replace those which were found to be too easy and failed to test students' knowledge.

The proposed replacements have "not gone far enough" to address concerns over standards, Ofqual said.

In a damning report, published in March last year, it had warned that science GCSEs taken by students in 2007 and 2008 failed to challenge the brightest pupils and contained too many multiple choice papers.

The exams watchdog ordered an overhaul of the GCSE science qualifications, and immediate action was taken to toughen them up for students sitting them in this and the last academic year.

In that report exam boards were also told to design new qualifications to be introduced from September 2011.

It is these new replacement qualifications that Ofqual says are still not up to scratch.

Ofqual chairman Kathleen Tattersall, said: "If qualifications do not meet our standards, we cannot accept them into the regulated system.

"Learners, teachers, employers and universities look for the independent regulator's stamp of approval as assurance that qualifications are rigorous, demanding and fair."

It has emerged pupils could be asked to study the way singer Charlotte Church talks as part of a new English GCSE. Language used by Gavin And Stacey actress Ruth Jones could also be on the GCSE English syllabus in Wales.