Gove determined to reform GCSEs from 2015 after baccalaureate retreat Michael Gove, the education secretary, beat a retreat on introducing a single examination board after he was warned that some boards would go bankrupt and sue his department. Michael Gove and the schools minister David Laws are to press ahead with major reforms to GCSEs as early as 2015, even though the education secretary has been forced to beat a retreat on renaming the exams and introducing a single examination board. Gove made the decision to pull back from ditching GCSEs and creating an English Baccalaureate Certificate (EBC) after he was warned some exam boards would go bankrupt and then sue the Department for Education for breaching EU procurement rules. That might have delayed his shakeup of the exam system until 2018. As he announced his rethink, Gove was accused of being forced into a humiliating U-turn, and the normally irrepressible education secretary admitted he had tried to cross "a bridge too far." But his aides on Thursday denied that Gove's political wings had been clipped by Downing Street, or that he was now going to go soft on his often controversial education reforms. Laws also denied the U-turn was a win for his party, the Liberal Democrats, saying: "It is far better that there should be some red faces amongst ministers in the Department for Education for 24 hours than take any risk with the qualifications that will be taken by millions of youngsters for many years into the future." Gove had said: "When the arguments overwhelm me and I recognise that I am wrong, I think it best to retreat. We only make progress in this life when we know when to cut our losses. But he is still pressing ahead with major changes to what he regards as discredited GCSEs, even if he is no longer going to rebrand them as English Baccalaureate Certificates. He also announced a long awaited revamp of the national curriculum for primary and secondary schools. A further rewriting of school league table results was also announced so as to end a culture of low expectations. Allies of Gove denied that he had been forced into a U-turn by the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, saying he had worked closely on the reforms with Laws. It is understood that Clegg had argued that the pace of reforms was too fast and likely to lead to a backlash similar to the little understood health reforms in 2011. But Gove said he was still making changes to GCSEs from September 2015 in the core subjects so exams are taken at the end of two years rather than in stages. He promised there would be "fewer bite-sized and overly structured questions and a reduced role for coursework." In addition there will be no more "tiers" of GCSEs, so the easier "foundation paper" where the maximum grade possible is a C will be scrapped. Gove has also promised that English and history will test "extended writing." Internal assessment and the use of exam aids should be kept to a minimum and used only where there is a compelling case to do so. Laws underlined the coalition's continued determination to inject what it sees as greater rigour into GCSEs. There is a real consensus for change, but people thought the changes were too big and risky. We have listened and say there are ways of reaching our original objectives, but in less risky ways by adapting the existing GCSEs. Gove was forced last September to abandon his original reform for the return of O-levels, amid Lib Dem objections that it would reintroduce two-tier education. However, these revamped ideas, especially the proposed single exam board, came under attack both from Ofqual, the exams regulator, and last week the Tory-led education select committee. Gove had argued that a range of exam boards led to a dumbing down of standards. But government sources said Gove had decided as early as Christmas to cut his losses once he realised his proposals for a single exam board were floundering and that there was confusion over the proposed EBCs. Gove has now written to Ofqual to ask whether his revised timetable for changing GCSEs with the first exams in 2017 is achievable. He also set out far-reaching plans to existing league tables, saying they "have focused almost exclusively on how many children achieve a C pass in five GCSEs, including English and maths." He said that that "deceptively simple measure contained perverse incentives," including encouraging schools to choose exams based on how easy they are to pass, and focusing teachers' energies too closely on those pupils on the C/D borderline, at the expense of their higher or lower-achieving pupils. In future, the tables will reflect the percentage of pupils in each school reaching a threshold in the core subjects of English and maths; and an average point score showing how much progress every student makes between key stage 2 and key stage 4 across eight different subjects. The shadow education secretary, Stephen Twigg, said: "The trouble with this secretary of state is that he thinks he knows the answer to everything, so he digs out the fag packet and comes up with his latest wheeze." Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers said: "This is a victory for all those who have campaigned against this ill-thought out reform to GCSEs. The education secretary must now learn a lesson from this fiasco and consult with those who know far more than he appears to do about education.