THE crisis in schools will be laid bare this week by a series of reports showing at least 1m children in England receive a second-rate education in poorly performing state schools.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will warn that a shortage of competent head teachers is damaging the prospects of a generation of schoolchildren.

MPs will say that hundreds of schools are being left leaderless, while many of those that do fill head teacher posts are second best.

They will criticise the government and school inspectors for failing to do enough to solve the problem and support or root out those head teachers who are underperforming.

The result, confirmed by the National Audit Office, is that 1,500 primary and secondary schools — with 1m children — are providing a sub-standard education.

Separate official figures will show on Thursday that, despite doubling spending to £40 billion since 1997, almost half of all secondary schools failed this year to get pupils through five good GCSEs that include the fundamentals of English and maths.

In some of the worst authorities, such as Bristol and Manchester, fewer than a third of pupils this year achieved five good GCSEs that included English and maths. In Islington, rejected by Tony Blair for his children, it was only 30%.

The government will also be forced to admit that there are still some 400 schools officially designated as “failing” or with serious problems, a marginal drop on last year’s total but still responsible for educating thousands of children.

According to the PAC, the £837m that is being spent annually on improving weak schools has failed to tackle the national shortage of high-quality head teachers.

Secondary schools are now offering salaries of more £100,000 in order to attract head teachers. In the first three months of this year, 1,340 schools in England and Wales advertised for a new head, nearly 200 more than in the same period last year.

However, about 20% of secondary schools had to re-advertise because they could not find a suitable candidate.

Last year, 28% of primary schools and 20% of secondaries had to advertise more than once.

The MPs blamed the stream of government initiatives and changes in policy for the vacancy rate.

Questioning officials, Edward Leigh, the chairman of the PAC, said: “Head teachers tell us that pressures are just appalling from the (Education) Department . . . You can’t go piling pressure on head teachers and not expect there to be more giving up and difficulties with getting new ones.”

The MPs are also critical of Ofsted, the inspection body. Although 170 schools were found to be failing in the past 12 months, Ofsted reported that only three had evaluated the performance of their leadership and management as “inadequate”.

Greg Clark, a Conservative PAC member, said: “Ofsted has gone to the dogs over the last six years. Its inspection reports used to be rigorous, candid and useful to parents. Now they are practically useless in helping parents to get to know a school.”

Additional reporting: Tom Baird

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