Michael Barber: Blair's legacy is that standards are higher

We forget the headlines from the months before Tony Blair became Prime Minister: "Schools – crumbling classrooms – and unwelcome wildlife"; "Standards too low in half of primary schools"; and "Parents raffle car to pay new teacher".

Blair inherited schools that had suffered chronic underinvestment through the Callaghan, Thatcher and Major years. Primary school standards of literacy were the same in 1996 as they had been in 1948 and the first round of Ofsted inspections had revealed that up to 2,500 schools were seriously weak or failing.

Ten years later, school performance, while there is more to do, is at record levels. School failure has been dramatically reduced. There are 40,000 more teachers, more support staff than ever and the pay and conditions of the workforce are much improved. The reforms in England are admired across the world for their boldness and impact.

Despite the underinvestment, Blair had one advantage in 1997: the Conservative governments had put in place significant reforms on which he could build, especially the national curriculum, national testing, inspection, devolution of resources to schools and the beginnings of choice. Blair and David Blunkett, his first and most successful education secretary, seized the opportunity.

In my first meeting with Blair in January 1995, he said he wanted to become the education Prime Minister. I responded that many politicians had shared that aspiration but none had seen it through. The following year, Blair made his "Education, education, education" speech and stuck to his commitment for over a decade. None of his predecessors made education a priority for such a sustained period.

Because Blair and Blunkett were willing to be judged by results, they changed the terms of historical debate. Blunkett was the first education secretary to be judged by the results children achieved in schools. Even for his most illustrious predecessors – R.A. Butler and Kenneth Baker, for example – this was not the case. For all his successors it will be.

Moreover, the Blair legacy is about much more than improved results. In 30 years people will be admiring the many excellent new school buildings from the first decade of this century.

In 10 years talented new recruits from the next generation will be leading the system . This is crucial because the defining characteristic of the world's great education systems is that they recruit teachers from among the best graduates.

The most fundamental achievement of the Blair years will turn out to be that the combination of choice, diversity and improved performance persuaded many people who could afford private schooling that the publicly-provided system could meet their aspirations. As a result they will be willing to play the level of taxes needed to sustain the improved performance. All major political parties agree about this now. Ten years ago they didn't.

Take my own borough of Hackney. By 2010 there will be five new academies. "For years parents fought to get their kids out of Hackney schools," says local MP Meg Hillier, "Now they're fighting to get them in." The academies will not just transform standards, they will alter the social make-up of the borough. As a result they will do more for social integration than any other government policy.

Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing and there are blemishes on the record. There were mistakes (many of them my responsibility). For example, in the first Blair term, there were too many initiatives. Some of them, such as Education Action Zones, were flawed. In the second Blair term, there was a temporary loss of momentum on primary education. On secondary education, once Excellence in Cities, the London Challenge and the expansion of specialist schools came through they were effective but Blair himself would be the first to admit we should have been bolder.

While standards are higher than they've ever been, they are still not acceptable. Around 30,000 young people leave school every year with no qualifications. While there has been a narrowing of achievement gaps, the data the DfES now has reveals more vividly than ever the individuals and groups – Turkish boys for example – who are being left behind.

Personalised learning is the answer but it is working in only a minority of schools. As Gordon Brown said recently, the system has gone from being below average (in international comparisons) to being above average; now the task is to become world class.

The writer was chief adviser to David Blunkett from 1997 to 2001 and head of Blair's Delivery Unit from 2001 to 2005. His book on these experiences – Instruction to Deliver – is published this month by Politico's