AS LEVELS are overburdening school budgets, a Harpenden headteacher has claimed in caustic criticism of the new examination schedule.

Mr Norman Hoare, headteacher of St George's School in Sun Lane, Harpenden, estimated the cost of entering every candidate for the appropriate papers would be in excess of £50,000.

When added to the expense of appointing two extra administration staff to cope with the additional paperwork, Mr Hoare estimates the school has been left with a bill for £120,000 more than the school can afford to spend on textbooks for 1,000 pupils.

Speaking to parents and pupils at the school's annual prizegiving recently, Mr Hoare said: "We have created a monster within our education system that grows without being checked and consumes increasingly scarce resources.

"The new AS papers this summer were the latest threat to what schools can realistically afford and manage.

"I do not want to take away from the wonderful achievements of my teachers and pupils in achieving such excellent results a number of students got 100 per cent in subjects, but the truth must out.

"AS levels have seriously affected the life of schools. The shape of the school year has, unless AS levels are disbanded, changed forever."

Outlining the problems encountered by heads across the UK, Mr Hoare added: "We have the most tested pupils in Europe. There is little time for sport, drama and music.

"Our schools were not built to examine such huge numbers. The exam season begins in May with Year 9 Key Stage 3 tests and goes on to the end of June.

"It is all very well listening to apologies from the architects of the new AS system, that in retrospect the new examinations may not have been such a good idea, but headteachers were saying this 12 months before we had to start the things.

"Why does no one listen to us? After all, we have to implement these poorly thought out yet expensive initiatives in our schools."

However, despite his concerns, Mr Hoare praised a year of bumper results for the Harpenden school, which achieved the best A-level results in its history. Added to this, 150 out of 151 students recorded a minimum of five A to C grades at GCSE.

But the pupils' outstanding achievements have meant that space is once again at a premium as the school continues to be oversubscribed.