Four in ten primary pupils fail to master three Rs

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Four in ten children leave primary school without a basic grasp of the three Rs, national test results have revealed.

Official results published yesterday showed a slight rise in the proportion of pupils making the grade in reading, maths and science.

This year, 80 per cent of pupils made the grade in English - reading and writing combined - and 77 per cent in maths. But this still means nearly a quarter of a million pupils will move up to secondary school next month without having mastered the skills of reading, writing and maths.

The scale of under-performance in the subjects regarded as crucial by parents and employers is unchanged since last summer despite pressure on primaries to achieve year-on-year improvements. It follows investment of billions of pounds over the past decade in literacy and numeracy drives.

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Battling with the basics: Crucial skills are not being learned

As education ministers missed Treasury targets for driving up primary school standards, they signalled current goals could now be dropped.

National tests in reading, writing, maths and science were taken by 585,000 11-year-olds this spring.

Boys narrowed the gender gap in English while maintaining their lead in maths. But overall performance for both sexes in writing was no better than last year and achievement in reading was merely restored to 2005 levels after a shock drop last summer.

Almost one in ten boys still start secondary school with the reading age of an average seven-year-old.

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The table shows that four in ten children do not have a basic grasp of the three Rs

Ministers were forced to admit they had "further to go" as it emerged just 60 per cent of all pupils - and 56 per cent of boys - reached the expected level for their age in the three Rs combined.

It means some 234,000 pupils are unable to punctuate basic sentences, spell words with more than one syllable, pick out basic themes from text and recall the six times table.

The results also revealed a massive gulf in standards between state and fee-paying schools. Almost every prep school pupil reached the standard expected of 11-year-olds - so-called "level four" - in English, maths and science.

And twice as many fee-paying pupils are so far ahead in the three Rs they are meeting an even tougher level - the standard expected of 14-year-olds.

As teachers' leaders demanded the scrapping of national testing and targets, Schools Minister Lord Adonis insisted the regime was here to stay.

However, he revealed the Government was reviewing the current target for 85 per cent of pupils to reach expected levels in English and Maths.

The target was originally set for 2004 but a virtual stalling of results prompted the Government to put back the goals to 2006.

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Almost half of the pupils leave primary school without mastering the basic three Rs

Ministers shifted again, simply promising "progress towards" them in a Labour third-term.

"We are in discussions at the moment about where we go next on targets," said Lord Adonis. "No conclusions have been reached yet but we do expect to see year-on-year progress."

He hailed the "best ever" set of results for state schools.

He added: "We are very mindful of the need to see further year-on-year progress."

Pupils who sat national tests this year had experienced Labour's daily literacy hour and numeracy lesson for their entire primary school careers.

But the highly-regarded "synthetic phonics" method of teaching reading was only made a legal duty on schools last year.

Critics claimed ministers' "best ever" results had been inflated.

The Civitas think-tank said a "toxic cocktail" of last-minute cramming, teaching to the test and lowered standards had artificially bolstered the number of pupils reaching level four.

Lord Adonis: 'best ever results'

In a briefing published yesterday, it named experts who believe national test results dramatically over-state actual gains in pupil performance.

These include Professor Dylan Wiliam(CRT), of London's Institute of Education.

"There are many children who can reach level four in May of Year Six but cannot reach the same level a year later, because they'd been coached for the tests," he said.

Further concern over standards was sparked by the revelation pupils can reach level four with a minimum score of 43 per cent in their exams.

Shadow Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: "Gordon Brown says that improving education is his passion but after ten years of his being in Government, two out of five 11-year-olds are still leaving primary school without mastering the basics."

Liberal Democrat Schools spokesman Stephen Williams said: "Ministers should put their champagne on ice. Despite some marginal improvements, disturbing trends still persist."

Business leaders said results were not improving quickly enough, threatening the country's economy.

Mike Harris, head of education at the Institute of Directors, said: "With early attainment so crucial to later achievement and participation, the pace of change needs to quicken substantially if we are to generate the flow of skills into the workforce we need."

Meanwhile, Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The national test results conceal the downside of tests, targets and tables.

"We surely must be able to come up with a better system than one which encourages the hot-house pressures of teaching to the test at the expense of the rest of the curriculum and unrealistic national targets."

 

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