AS Labour came crashing into power two weeks ago, it did so among claims that it would perform a radical shake-up of Britain's secondary schools.

As we know, education was one of the major platforms of the election, and the promise of reform, one of the major vote-pullers.

It fills one with foreboding, therefore, when practically the first thing the new Secretary of State for Education and Skills does, is question the introduction of the new AS-levels, brought in under her predecessor, David Blunkett.

Estelle Morris announced on June 12, just five days after the election, that there would be an urgent inquiry into the impact on teachers and pupils of the new exams, taken by sixth-formers at the end of the first year in the sixth form.

As anyone with secondary school-age children will know, the new AS-levels, introduced just two years ago in 1999, have caused controversy among teachers and governors, and more than a little exam fatigue and stress among students.

The idea of the new "tier" of qualifications, taken in four or five subjects, was to broaden the curriculum, rather than have sixth-form students spending two years on just three subjects.

But in reality, it has led to "a reduction in vigour and depth", as one observer put it, and put increased pressure on today's youngsters, some of whom are already stretched to the point of snapping.

Even Miss Morris herself admits the AS-levels may have been a mistake or, at least, not handled correctly.

"These are the most fundamental reforms to A-level qualifications for 50 years," she said.

"Inevitably, not everything is yet right in the way they have been brought in and there will be lessons to be learnt."

What is worrying is that just two weeks before, prior to the election, David Blunkett had defended the new exams.

Now David Hargreaves, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, is conducting an urgent review that is to report by next month.

While it is admirable that Miss Morris is prepared to admit when things have not gone quite as well as planned, it is worrying to see such a lack of unity and direction on such an important issue so soon after the election.

How could something that is now seen as so "wrong" have seemed, only two years ago, so "right"?

Miss Morris acknowledged recently that lower-sixth pupils taking the new exam had been unreasonably burdened. But she tried to shift the blame on to schools.

"Don't forget that we have not taken a prescriptive approach - we have not laid down a single model to be followed by all students and institutions," she said.

"The mix of qualifications and range of subjects taken is a matter for students, parents, teachers and colleges to decide together."

However, when the reforms were announced in March 1999, Baroness Blackstone, an education minister, said: "Young people in England are taught for an average 18 hours a week, compared with 30 hours in other European countries. I do not believe our youngsters are less capable. Our reforms will ensure that they are stretched to achieve their full potential."

In response to such pressure, virtually all schools decided that the majority of lower-sixth pupils should take at least four subjects. Virtually all came to regret it.

There would seem to be general agreement among teachers and head teachers that too much examining does no one any good.

"Sixth-form education ought to encourage students to think for themselves and it doesn't do that if you test them all the time," said Bernice McCabe, who is head teacher at the North London Collegiate.

She said the sixth form allowed students to "gain intellectual satisfaction, by seeing links within, and between, their subjects".

"We want them to develop skills that allow them to engage effectively in debate and present their arguments coherently. The expansion of minds and personalities can be suppressed if they are force-fed," she added.

Other critics have accused the AS-levels of taking up time which would traditionally have been used for a wide variety of extra-curricular activities aimed at broadening students' minds and awakening their interest in things hitherto unknown.

"Sixth-form students traditionally have been encouraged to join societies, to play music, to act in plays and to get involved in community service," said Miss McCabe.

"The domination of examinations in every one of the last three-years of students' education runs counter to this."

Heads of both state and independent schools have complained of the prescriptive nature of the "specifications", as the new syllabuses are called, and said AS-levels were narrowing the curriculum, rather than broadening it. They noticed that one of the few schools to have stood against the tide and stuck to the old A-level approach was the London Oratory, where Tony Blair sends two of his sons.

As Dr Nick Tate, Professor Hargreave's predecessor at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, and head teacher at Winchester College, put it: "We've become an over-examined society but I only realised it belatedly. We got it wrong."