ALMOST a million children in England are being let down by poor teaching and inadequate leadership in hundreds of under-performing schools, according to an influential committee of MPs.

In spite of the Government spending almost £900 million on schemes to raise achievement levels, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) estimates that last year as many as 1,557 schools, including one in six secondaries, were failing to provide a decent education.

The report comes as Ofsted figures reveal today that the number of schools judged to be failing or requiring “significant improvement” had risen by more than 11 per cent in the past year, from 587 schools in August 2005 to 654 schools this year. At the same time, double the number of inadequate schools were closed in August compared with last.

Head teachers and teaching unions reacted angrily to the “misleading and damaging” report, which they said did not give a true reflection of education in today’s schools.

With almost one in seven schoolchildren being denied a quality education, Edward Leigh, chairman of the PAC, said that the long-term consequences for Britain’s future were severe.

“Nearly one million children in England attend schools that, according to government definitions, are providing a poor standard of education,” he said. “To waste so much potential in this way is a tragedy.”

The Tory MP insisted that the “signs of decline” needed to be picked up early and dealt with swiftly. He voiced concern, too, over the lack of data by which to judge primary schools, amid fears that poor performers were slipping through the net.

Having examined trends in poorly performing schools over 2004-05, the 59th PAC report identified strong leadership, honest self-evaluation and collaboration with successful schools as key to raising standards.

While accepting that fewer schools are weak or failing than were six years ago, the committee noted that more schools are missing the Government’s baseline GCSE targets.

In 2004, the Government denoted “low-attaining” secondary schools as those where less than a fifth of children achieved five A*-C GCSEs. In 2005 40 schools failed this GCSE benchmark.

While the MPs agree that poor-performing schools should receive more attention than high-performers, they give warning that weak heads often fail to give an honest assessment of their performance.

“Of the schools inspected during the autumn 2005 term, only three judged their leadership and management to be ‘inadequate’. However, 85 schools were placed in special measures, indicating that Ofsted judged leadership and management to be weak in a much higher number,” the report said.

While leadership is clearly key to raising morale and the ethos of a school, the MPs also note that in spite of offering salaries of up to £100,000, schools are finding it increasingly difficult to replace them.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister said the report had exaggerated the number of failing schools.

“A significant proportion of these schools are not failing. In some, 60 to 70 per cent of pupils get five good GCSEs and many others are improving very quickly,” he said.

John Dunford, general-secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders denounced the report as “misleading and damaging”.

He said: “Let us be clear about the current situation. Even though Ofsted has raised the bar for inspections, only 54 secondary schools out of 3,500 are in special measures.

“Of the other schools cited as ‘low attaining’, many have good value-added scores for very weak intakes. They are certainly not failing.”

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