MINISTERS have rejected calls for schools to delay the introduction of a flagship exam.

Angela Constance, the education secretary, said she had not yet heard a "compelling case" for new Advanced Highers to be run in tandem with the existing qualification for an extra year.

Ms Constance was commenting after the Scottish Parliament's education committee heard evidence that schools would ditch Advanced Higher courses unless they were allowed to delay bringing in the new qualification.

The Scottish Government has already bowed to pressure last year to delay the national roll-out of new Higher exams - with thousands of pupils taking up the option to defer - but has not offered the same concession for Advanced Higher.

Ms Constance told the committee Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms were "progressing well".

She said: "We're doing everything we can to ensure teachers are getting the right and very specific support with regards to the..... revised Advanced Highers.

"There are about 22,000 entries for Advanced Higher, it's a much smaller cohort if you like, whereas for Highers you're looking at over 200,000 entries.

"The course is quite different in terms of Advanced Highers, it is a far smaller taught component. I haven't as yet heard a compelling case for a dual running in the Advanced Highers given that the numbers are smaller and that the taught component is much smaller as well."

Earlier, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), told MSPs teachers were struggling with CfE reforms.

He said: "There is no evidence coming to us from our members that the workload pressures of last year have abated in any real sense and it's in that context that we are concerned that the option around deferring the new Advanced Higher for a further year.... is not being presented.

"I think the consequence will be, if there is no option around that, that because of these workload pressures, because of the staffing pressures that are on in terms of school timetables, a lot of schools will just drop the Advanced Higher.

"The danger here is not that people will push ahead with the Advanced Higher and take on board the workload pressure. I think the danger is that they will turn away from it and Advanced Higher will be marginalised in terms of being on offer in our secondary schools."

Opposition politicians backed the call from Mr Flanagan, with Mary Scanlon, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservative Party, saying: "If it is deemed to be educationally sound to have flexibility over when the new Higher should be introduced then surely the same logic must apply to the Advanced Higher."

Liam McArthur, education spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, added: "The current education secretary seems intent on unlearning the lessons of recent history and insisting that all schools move to the new Advanced Higher next year in all subjects. This is despite clear warnings from teachers' unions."

However, Graeme Logan, strategic director for school years at Education Scotland, the quango tasked with supporting and improving education, said "all available support" was being directed towards ensuring a smooth transition between Highers and the new Advanced Higher.

And SQA chief executive Dr Janet Brown said lessons had been learned from the introduction of the new National exams last year.

She said: "This year is more manageable. I think the work pressure is still a challenge, but I think people know what they're doing, including us.

"In the case of the Advanced Higher it's a very similar structure and the nature of the change is by no means as great."

The education secretary was later pressed on changes to the exam appeals process after claims last week the system favoured private school pupils ''more than ever before''.

Ms Constance hit back, saying: "I think some of the commentary was disingenuous and would like to make clear to committee that the people who make a decision about whether to contact the SQA and whether to pursue an appeal is teachers and that is a professional decision made by teachers."