Pupils must be offered "real choices" in their own education, Tony Blair said yesterday as a shake-up of the exam system was unveiled by the Government.

Young people in every part of England are to get a chance to do the International Baccalaureate (IB) instead of A-levels by 2010.

And a new A-star grade will allow the brightest pupils that stick to the traditional exam to demonstrate their ability.

"If we are serious about tailoring education to the needs of young people, they should have real choices after 14," Mr Blair told an audience in Birmingham.

The changes were unveiled earlier by Education Secretary Alan Johnson as part of reforms designed to make the A-level more stretching.

And £2.5m is being provided to ensure that more schools and colleges can offer the IB.

The Prime Minister also confirmed plans to double the number of city academies to 400 and to provide support for an additional 100 trust schools.

He was addressing the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, ten years on from his speech pledging "education, education, education" would be the priorities of a Labour Government.

Mr Blair said: "The key to education today is to personalise learning, to recognise different children have different abilities and in different subjects.

"However, personalising learning is not just about a distinctive approach to every child; it is also reflected in a distinctive approach to every school.

"It is about schools feeling ownership of their own future, the power and the responsibility that comes from being free to chart their own course, experiment and innovate."

The Prime Minister added: "I think the path is now clear toward greater independence but so is the guiding spirit of the changes: the belief that only through the pursuit of excellence can equity be achieved; only through schools being free to personalise learning can a child really be given the education suitable to them."

The two-year IB programme requires students to take six subjects, including their own language, a second language, one arts and one science subject and three compulsory elements: an extended project, theory of knowledge and community service.

It has become more popular, particularly in independent schools, amid claims - hotly disputed by ministers - that A-levels have become easier.