THOUSANDS of pupils could see their futures thrown into doubt after a warning that the exam system was close to breaking point.

Headteachers and teaching union leaders in Swindon have said that unless there is a marked improvement on GCSE and A-level marking procedures, there could be a repeat of last summer's chaos when thousands of A-level papers had to be remarked after schools queried some of the grades.

It is estimated more than 95,000 exam papers from Swindon will be travelling around the country and it has been warned that with 24 million papers nationally there is potential for a disaster.

Keith Defter, chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Heads and head of Commonweal School, said: "I remember talking about this last year and warning lessons must be learned.

"The Government talks of raising standards but if the reality is that the system is unsustainable then there is something seriously wrong."

Dr Ken Boston, chairman of Government exams watchdog the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, has said that England's exam system is virtually unsustainable and the best he can do is make sure the wheels don't fall off this summer. Dr Boston said: "We are dependent on 24 million scripts moving across the country by post, which is a high risk.

"We are doing everything we can to reduce the risk and to ameliorate it, but there is a risk and it has to be managed."

His comments referred to both GCSE and A-level exam papers, and he admitted the exam boards do not yet have a full staff of markers.

Teaching unions in the town have been angered by the news that university graduates have been recruited to mark papers.

Ian Hill, Swindon branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: "Having exams marked by unqualified people using a marking scheme they don't understand ruins the exams' credibility."

Swindon's National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) representative Dick Mattick took a similar view.

But not everyone is expecting chaos this summer. New College principal Graham Taylor said he thought Dr Boston's comments were "way over the top".

"I think he is harking back to what happened last summer, but actually there were less papers re-marked last summer than the year before."

n Last year's A-level marking fiasco eventually lead to the resignation of Education Secretary Estelle Morris.

Current incumbent Charles Clarke will be hoping things go more smoothly this year, but according to Dr Ken Boston there is no guarantee.

In summer 2002 the three exam boards, Edexcel, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance and Oxford and Cambridge RSA were forced to re-mark thousands of A-level papers after private schools discovered their pupils had been inexplicably marked down.

An inquiry chaired by Mike Tomlinson eventually found that nothing had gone wrong.

Hoping for the best

New College student Alice Little, 18, from the town centre is studying A-levels in modern history, politics and English literature. She must get three A grades to secure her offer of a place to read modern history at St Edmond Hall, Oxford.

Alice spends six hours a day revising for her A-levels, and with the offer of a place at Oxford University there is pressure to succeed.

But she fears that all her work could be undone by a stroke of bad luck if Dr Ken Boston's predictions come true.

She said: "Last year the second run of one of our exam papers had a misprint, and we spent all summer worrying. Even though the examiners are told to mark the paper more softly, it might be the mistake completely knocks you off your stride.

"Dr Boston's comments don't fill me with confidence, although it does sound like they are trying to get their act together.

"I heard that one year an examiner's house burnt down, taking all the exam papers. Once you've completed the paper it is all a bit hit and miss."