Brown mentors pledge for drop-outs

Prime Minister-in-waiting Mr Brown vowed to wipe out innumeracy among 11-year-olds as he set out his plans to give pupils a "world class" education.

Mr Brown is due to keep up his emphasis on education with a visit to a nursery school in London.

He unveiled his latest plans to business leaders at the CBI's annual dinner as he continues his leadership campaign. In his speech he also pledged to "never take any risks with inflation or with the stability of the economy".

Mr Brown said it was "unacceptable" that 150,000 children were not numerate before starting secondary school, promising one-to-one tuition for those left behind.

From next year, Mr Brown promised that 14 to 16-year-olds would be given the chance to do a day or more training every week in a work-type setting.

He went on: "For those 14 to 16-year-olds most at risk of dropping out, for whom conventional schooling is a turn-off, we need a system of special support that motivates them through work related training and raises their aspirations through intensive one-to-one mentoring in order to prepare them for further learning and the world of work."

Mr Brown said that Britain had "moved from below average to above average" in education over the last 10 years.

He went on: "We have made big progress on literacy and numeracy. But as you will tell me we still have further to go: it is unacceptable that we still have 150,000 children leaving primary school who aren't numerate."

His Every Child Counts scheme would give children struggling with maths at primary school one-to-one tuition, helping 300,000 youngsters by 2010.