MATHEMATICS will suffer if the Government rushes through a proposed restructure of modular A levels before the general election, leading academics and politicians have warned.

Mathematics academics have almost universally condemned the blueprint for a new maths A level subject "core" from the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority. They say it is based on fundamentally flawed and "secretive" new A and AS level rules.

In a leaked document dated August 6, Draft Rules for the New AS and AS/AL Modular Syllabuses, the SCAA proposes that AS papers count as 40 per cent of an A level, rather than the present 50 per cent.

Roger Porkess, of the Centre for Teaching Mathematics at Plymouth University, has attacked the 40/60 split. In a paper for the maths curriculum development body, Mathematics in Education and Industry, he argues that it "is almost guaranteed to prevent students taking a broader curriculum than just three A levels".

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A student who completes six subjects at AS would gain fewer units of credit for two years' work than a student with three A levels.

"The only function of the new AS would be as a waystage to the full A level," he says. "If work of A-grade difficulty is not to appear on AS module examinations, the best A-level students will not be intellectually challenged in the early parts of their courses."

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SCAA is also criticised for failing to promote coherence between the new A levels and GNVQ courses and reducing the module re-sits available.

The rules follow Sir Ron Dearing's March 1996 review of qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds and are timetabled to be in place by September 1998.

SCAA assistant chief executive Tony Millns said: "We have involved everyone we could possibly involve in the timescale given."

The Royal Society and the Joint Mathematical Council have raised doubts about the rules. Royal Society vice-president Sir John Horlock has written to Sir Ron about the haste to get them in place.

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Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster has written to Education Secretary Gillian Shephard complaining that the model will not achieve any of its objectives.