However, the QCA said 35% of schools were already presenting the subjects as optional.
The equivalences in the new system have been proposed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).
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Also, as the QCA report itself notes, there have been other significant developments since the 1970s.
Sir Jim, we are told, will be closely supported by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).
England's regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), is committed to phasing out the GNVQ by 2007.
The QCA recently said pupils could sit some GCSE papers online within the next two to five years.
Some teachers told the QCA that candidates might feel they were "disadvantaged" compared with those in previous years.
Minichiello is managing director of the Los Angeles investment firm Quincy Cass Associates and the chief investment officer of QCA Capital Management.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said the test contractor ETS and the QCA were to blame for the problems last year.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), which administers the tests in England, has advice for parents whose children are taking them.
Ms Clarke said she was glad that the QCA had now suspended its chief executive Dr Ken Boston and another senior executive.
One might be forgiven for thinking it was part of the QCA's job to review the curriculum, not support someone else's review.
When he heard of the QCA decision, Mr Distill said he doubted there was time to stop the test going ahead in 2008.
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Instead, he said, officials had tried to put the blame on the exam watchdog the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) or the exam boards themselves.
However the Department for Education responded to the QCA report by saying it has "no plans at present" to make languages compulsory in primary school.
The QCA would carry out its role as "e-regulator", he added.
It is understood that the QCA has not made any recommendation to ministers based on the report, but its attitude seems clear from its circular findings.
The QCA is running a pilot scheme in 60 schools with the Edexcel board, involving "more relevant and interesting topics", such as business vocabulary and the media.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) said that if a child was enrolled in a school, the head teacher had a legal obligation to administer the tests to that child.
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Responding to Mr Tomlinson's comments, the Department for Education said it was aware of the pressures on the primary curriculum and was working with the QCA on the new guidance for schools.
The QCA has announced that as a result of the consultation, plays said to be suitable for setting will include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It and Julius Caesar.
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Yet teaching in secondary schools "is still not as good as other subjects, and for the 16 to 18-year-old range, the proportion of good or better specialist teaching of ICT is low", the QCA said.
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The QCA's subject officer for history, Jerome Freeman, said that in the curriculum for 11 to 14 year olds and at GCSE and A-level there were options for looking at the politics of the recent past.
As a result of the criticisms of Lambeth, Baroness Blackstone announced that Sir William Stubbs, chairman of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), is to take charge of reforming the borough's provision for 16 to 19 year olds.
The former chief inspector of schools in England has been asked to examine claims that the exams watchdog, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), pressurised exam boards into lowering results to counter claims that A-levels had been dumbed down.
For more information, please visit www.qca.qualcomm.com.
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"If this is not the case, we risk young people being under-prepared for the rigours of studying maths at A-level - a concern that would appear to be shared by QCA, the government's own advisers on the school curriculum, " Prof Brown said.
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In the overview of Key Stage 3 (ages 12 to 14), the QCA said many schools indicated that the curriculum suffered from "content overload" which made incorporating additional aspects very difficult - for example, citizenship, careers education and guidance and work-related learning.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | Alarm at history 'Hitlerisation'
The QCA will be scrutinising exam papers and candidates' scripts this year more than ever in the effort to try to ensure that standards are maintained - but says it does not intervene with the exam boards to tell them where to fix the boundaries between grades.
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