Primary school pupils miss all government targets

Four out of ten pupils could not read, write and add up properly by the time they left primary school this summer, the Government admitted yesterday.

The Times reports that national curriculum results for this age group improved slightly on last year, but the figures showed that 166,500 pupils did not meet the standard expected in writing, 67,000 failed to make it in reading, 54,000 could not reach it in science and 105,000 could not add up to the same level.

Of the 600,000 11-year-olds who took tests this summer, 80% made the grade in English, 84% in reading, 77% in maths and 88% in science. However, the figures also showed that the Government had missed its targets in all areas and that only 60% of the “Blair generation” of primary school pupils had met the expected level in all subjects, including reading, writing, maths and science.

Lord Adonis, the schools minister, said that more money will be spent on classroom assistants, one-to-one tuition, intensive reading and maths catch-up programmes and on better training for teachers.

There are few more important uses for public money than giving children the best start in life.

But hundreds of thousands of children are still being failed, while the government plans to lavish billions of pounds extra a year on the audit-failing EU.

By Lord Adonis's own admission, not enough money has been invested in classroom assistants, teacher training and extra tuition programmes.

Could it have been more, if so much money didn't have to be committed to the wasteful EU?

MPs will decide where the government's spending priorities should more properly lie, when they get to vote on the EU budget deal ... and answer for their choice to parents in their constituencies, come the next election.