There has been intense speculation that the Liberal Democrats in the government had been key in the downfall of the EBC, but an official statement said the changes were a "coalition policy", rather than a "major policy victory" for their party.
That English Baccalaureate is not a qualification in its own right but rather a measure of achievement and many found the similarity between that and planned new EBC exam confusing.
It also says the EBC, with its planned focus on depth of knowledge and longer essays, will not be a reliable indicator for league tables, because of the subjectivity involved in marking such exams.
The government's plan was to put each subject's EBC exam out to tender with exams boards and then choose one board to be the provider for a particular subject.