He has been impressed with many of the initiatives offered by the Labour Government which, he says, have led to a “sea change” in attitudes to education. However, he also believes that the Government is unlikely to embrace the Tomlinson reforms to secondary education this week.

“There is a significant proportion of youngsters who simply are being turned off by the current curriculum. For them a coherent programme of work-based training is obviously more important than what they are currently getting.

“That, in a sense, has been tackled by the Tomlinson working group. The problem is that the Government is unlikely to accept all the report’s recommendations. They’ll take a few and leave the rest.

“The problem isn’t likely to be tackled effectively for many years to come. It has been left largely untackled. That’s one of the factors that has led to the deficiencies in our education system. Truancy, demotivation and discipline issues.”

But Sir John, who was knighted last year for his role in making Dixons City Technology College, in Bradford, a success, is convinced that Labour has helped to raise educational standards.

Key to the rise, he says, was Tony Blair’s election vow before reaching Downing Street in 1997 to make education the priority. “The ‘education, education, education’ Tony Blair statement really did set the established priority,” he said. “It really has set the tenor of government policy, certainly over the past two elections. Once that is set the funding has to follow, and that’s what has happened.

“I think there’s been a significant improvement in many respects. The public regard for teachers and the profession has shown a significant increase and can only be good. There’s no doubt that the overall level of funding coming into schools has increased substantially.”

He also cites the establishment of three-year budgetary cycles for schools as crucial innovations because they remove the uncertainty of annual budgets. Extra capital investment available to modernise and rebuild schools has, he said, made a big difference.

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