PUPILS are shunning the Government's flagship diploma qualification, the Department for Education and Skills has revealed.

Lessons in the new diploma, an alternative to traditional GCSEs and A-levels, began in September.

But in some London boroughs, fewer than 20 youngsters are actually taking the courses.

Just six children have signed up in Harrow, while 17 have opted for diplomas in Wandsworth.

The new course was developed by the Government to provide both vocational and academic education as part of the same qualification.

Diplomas are also designed to encourage youngsters to continue in education for longer.

They last for four years, typically studied by pupils aged 14 to 19, ending the traditional need to decide whether to stay on in school at 16.

Ministers had considered scrapping A-levels and GCSEs entirely, but instead opted to run both sets of qualifications simultaneously, giving students a choice.

The Government predicted that 50,000 pupils across Britain would take diplomas in the first year, but only 12,000 have done so.

In Harrow, six of a possible 1,800 pupils are studying diplomas, while in Wandsworth the figure is 17 out of 2,000.

In Haringey, 26 out of 2,300 pupils are taking diplomas, and in Lewisham 29 out of 2,400 are signed up to the new courses.

The figures were published by the Government in response to questions from the Conservatives.

Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove said: "We want vocational diplomas to succeed as a high quality alternative to academic education.

"But the Government has botched their introduction by generating confusion about what they are all about."

He claimed Ministers had changed their minds about whether diplomas were meant to replace A-levels or not.

"The resulting confusion has led to tens of millions of taxpayers' money being spent on diplomas with only a few thousand pupils actually doing them."

But Ministers said they had deliberately "staggered" the introduction of diplomas.

Schools minister, Jim Knight, said: "We will take no lessons from the Tories on diplomas, school rebuilding, or education maintenance allowances.

"They want to scrap diplomas, slash our school building programme and refuse to support the future of educational maintenance allowances.

"It's time the Tories came clean about what their risky education plans would really mean."

Business organisations such as the CBI have welcomed the introduction of the new qualification as a way of encouraging more pupils to take vocational courses, but called for A-levels to continue as an academic alternative.

Related links: Government figures for each local authority.

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