Two in every five children are leaving primary school without reaching the required level in English, maths and science, despite government efforts to push up standards.

Figures published yesterday show that more than 225,000 11-year-olds will enter secondary school next month without a proper grounding in these key subjects.

Results in English fell for the first time since the Key Stage tests, known as SATs, were introduced 15 years ago, with a quarter of boys and 15 per cent of girls failing to reach Level 4. Standards also flatlined in maths and science. More than one in five children did not achieve the correct level in maths and one in eight in science.

Ministers insisted that they were still pushing towards their target of getting 78 per cent of pupils up to Level 4 in English and maths, even though only 72 per cent did this year — one per cent down on last year. They appeared to acknowledge, however, that bringing all children up to this standard was unrealistic, emphasising that just because pupils had not reached Level 4 did not mean that they were illiterate or unable to do basic maths.

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Diana Johnson, the Schools Minister, said: “As the number of young people achieving Level 4 has increased, it is getting tougher to get the final 20 per cent to the expected level and we need to do more to sustain progress.” She said that there had been great progress, but added: “We should not be complacent about the small drop in English results compared to last year.

“Parents, headteachers and governing bodies will be rightly concerned that we have not seen an improvement this year, and we are too. This year’s results demonstrate loud and clear that we are going to have to ask some hard questions and redouble our efforts if we are to make further progress in national curriculum tests next year.”

Schools are to be encouraged to devote more time to one-on-one tuition for children falling behind in English and maths, in an attempt to improve the results. The Government is also introducing programmes such as Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts, in which teachers with specialist training adapt their teaching techniques with the aim of bringing out the best in each individual child.

The gender gap was particularly pronounced this year in English and head teachers’ complaints about inaccurate and variable marking were borne out by the noticeable difference between achievement in writing and reading.

Whereas 82 per cent of boys reached the required level in reading, only 60 per cent did so in writing. For girls the results were 86 per cent and 67 per cent respectively. The proportion of children reaching a higher standard than that expected for their age — Level 5 — rose in maths, but fell in English and science.

The Tories said the figures were proof that Labour had broken its promise to raise standards in education. Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, said: “This is the final proof that Labour, elected on a platform to raise standards in education, has failed to deliver. We have seen a historic drop in English results, the brightest students are not being stretched and the weakest are being failed the most. It is also concerning that the number securing the highest grades is declining.”

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: “Progress in primary schools has clearly stalled and in some cases has even slipped backwards. The yawning gap between girls and boys in literacy is also very worrying. The Government has failed to get a grip on the basics.”

Teaching unions said that the Key Stage tests should be scrapped. Martin Johnson, the deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “These results are further evidence that we have reached a ceiling for primary pupils’ performance within the current assessment and curriculum regime. Primary staff have again worked themselves into the ground to achieve the best results for their pupils. We know test-dominated learning leads to children forgetting much of what they have been taught.”

A spokesman for the National Association of Head Teachers, which says it could boycott the Key Stage 2 tests next year if they are not abolished, said: “We believe that the system is simply being maintained through political obduracy and that there are better ways to gain a broad picture of primary education in England. We encourage parents to ignore this meaningless nonsense.”

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