| One in six primary school pupils not fulfilling potential in maths and English Schools minister says figures show many children are not making expected progressOne in six pupils are failing to make the expected progress in English or maths by the time they leave primary school, the government revealed today.Statistics from this year's Sats released by the Department for Education show that 61,500 children – about 16% – did not go up the expected two levels on the assessment scale in English between the ages of seven and 11. The figure was 66,000 (17%) for maths.The schools minister, Nick Gibb, said it was a "real concern" that so many were failing to keep up in the basics.But his Labour shadow, Vernon Coaker, accused the government of spinning the figures to play down the achievements of children and teachers, pointing out that the figures were better than last year's.The statistics show that in English, more boys than girls failed to perform as expected, at 18% and 14% respectively. The gap has widened marginally since last year. In maths, the figures were 17% for boys and 18% for girls."Thousands of children are condemned to struggle at secondary school and beyond unless they get the fundamentals of reading, writing and maths right at an early age," Gibb said. "We also need to ensure that those who are doing well when they are seven are stretched to their full potential."The government planned to introduce a reading test for six-year-olds and use the synthetic phonics system to teach reading to help achieve this, he added.The numbers of pupils reaching the expected standards in both English and maths have improved since Labour came to power in 1997, from 53% to 74%.Coaker said: "The fact is that the proportion of children making the expected level of progress between seven and 11 years old has jumped two percentage points in maths and English since last year. In maths this has jumped five percentage points in just two years. We should be celebrating this as a success, whilst still being clear that there is more to do."Labour was introducing a fully funded guarantee of one-to-one tuition for all children falling behind in English and maths, which was blocked by the Conservatives before the election. The targeted support we had already introduced was clearly making a difference, as these figures show."We are very concerned that the work we were doing to drive further improvement will stop as the government has made clear cuts to schools are in the offing, starting with cuts already announced to the budgets of 3Rs catch-up programmes like Every Child a Reader."The progress of 384,416 pupils was assessed for English and 388,574 for maths. Numbers were lower than usual because two unions boycotted the tests.This week the education secretary, Michael Gove, announced that exam marking would in future take more account of spelling, punctuation and grammar. "Thousands of children – including some of our very brightest – leave school unable to compose a proper sentence, ignorant of basic grammar, incapable of writing a clear and accurate letter," he told the Tory conference.SatsSchoolsPrimary schoolsRachel Williamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Sheridan begins perjury defence Tommy Sheridan begins his own defence at his perjury trial in Glasgow after dismissing his legal team. bbc.co.uk |
Britain Details Radical Spending Cuts, Citing Debt The plan imposes drastic reductions in benefits and public sector jobs as the country seeks to free itself of crushing debt from the global financial crisis. nytimes.com |
Gut feline Why do some women devote their lives to cats? bbc.co.uk |
Monopoly and Lego tipped as top Christmas 2010 toys Classic toys like Monopoly and Lego expected to be best sellers. telegraph.co.uk |