More tests could be introduced to 14-year olds across all subjects, according to reports.

Education secretary Charles Clarke told Monday's Times that students' results would be recorded on a school certificate setting out the standards they had achieved in each subject before beginning GCSE courses.

A spokeswoman for the DfES told ePolitix.com: "We want pupils to have much more choice and flexibility about what they study between 14 and 19. What they study should be tailored to their talent.

"But this means we have to be clear about what they know at 14, so they can exercise choice properly. The truth is many schools already test and assess their pupils at 14 across a range of subjects. We have no plans to introduce further statutory tests at this age but we are debating the issue."

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gwen Evans, ATL's joint acting general secretary, said: "These latest proposals look too close to desperation. When tests stop having an effect on achievement setting yet more tests is an unconvincing idea.

"The government is again resorting to time and money-wasting strategies. It's about time they had the courage to admit that the alleged dip in achievement at 11 to 14 is a product of cramming at key stage two.

"What's even more odd is that the DfES seems to have forgotten that test markers are in short supply already and that they are still in theory committed to reducing teachers' workload."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, PAT general secretary, said: "If these tests will form part of a broader 14 to 19 curriculum - with assessment at 14 and 18 and less emphasis on the current 'school leavers'' exam at 16 - then it would make sense for pupils to be examined in all the subjects they have studied up to 14.

"However, it would not make sense for pupils to be tested across a whole range of subjects at both 14 and 16.

"To do so would add to the present over-burden of testing that PAT has long decried. PAT's own research demonstrates that pupils are already over tested.

"In our 2000 survey 'Tested to Destruction?', a survey of examination stress in teenagers, we calculated that, between school entry and A Levels, some pupils endured at least 75 external assessments, tests and examinations. With AS Levels, this figure is now calculated at over 100."