National Curriculum: Government accused of trying to hide poor results from primary school tests

Reading standards in UK primary schools have fallen, national curriculum test results for 11-year-olds revealed yesterday.

They also showed that standards in both maths and English amongst seven-year-olds had dropped, too.

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The figures were released at 9.30am - precisely the same time as GCSE results - prompting speculation that the timing was yet another attempt by New Labour to bury bad news.

Ministers and officials at the Department for Education and Skills insisted that the timing had been decided by government statisticians. However, the results showed that the Government had failed by an even larger margin than expected to reach their target of getting 85 per cent of youngsters to reach the required standard in both maths and English by 2006.

The figures showed there had been no improvement in English - with the percentage remaining the same at 79 per cent.

It meant that ministers had not even reached the target they had set for 2002 (of 80 per cent) - a failure which played a part in the decision by then Education Secretary Estelle Morris to resign.

In maths, the figure went up from 75 per cent to 76 per cent. Closer analysis showed there had been a four pointpercentage rise in pupils able to write properly to 67 per cent - but that reading had actually slipped back one percentage point to 83 per cent.

David Willetts, the Conservative education spokesman, said that overall, it meant 41 per cent of pupils were leaving primary school unable to master the basic skills in both subjects. "This is letting down the nation's children who then spend their lives playing catch-up," he added.

Martin Johnson, head of education at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, added: "Too much school time is being devoted to passing tests, leaving children bored and unmotivated. The Government needs to take its head out of the sand and stop this over-testing before another generation of children are lost to learning."

Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat shadow education secretary, said: "One has to wonder whether the fact these were published on the same day as GCSE results was really just a coincidence or another cynical New Labour attempt at news management."

Yesterday's results also showed a fall in the percentage of youngsters reaching the required standards in English and maths at the age of seven.Reading, writing and maths were all down by one per cent to 84 per cent, 82 per cent and 91 per cent respectively.

Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, said : "I am pleased to see the biggest ever increase in the number of 11-year-olds reaching the expected level in writing, which has been the most difficult area to improve, but it is a concern there has been a minor dip in reading."

The Government has endorsed a review of the way reading is taught in primary schools by Jim Rose, the former Ofsted chief primary schools inspector. The use of synthetic phonics will be compulsory in primary schools from next term.

Examples of the tests for 11-year-olds

* MATHS s, l and n each stand for a different number.

s + l = 18

l + n = 16

s + s = 14

Find the value of each shape.

s =

l =

n =

The numbers in the following sequence increase by equal amounts each time. Find the three missing numbers:

95 - - - 155

* ENGLISH Read the following passage and find the words to fill in the blanks. The words must be spelt correctly:

Do all your photographs seem to cut off someone's .... ? Well then, pay ......... to the following top tips and maybe you could become an award-winning photographer. You can take amazing pictures with any kind of camera; it doesn't need to have all the ...... gadgets. The flash on a camera gives a sudden burst of .......... light to avoid shadows or to ........... someone's face. Be careful when using the flash outside on a busy street, because the flash can reflect the streetlights and you will ........ get an image that is out of focus. Sometimes the light from the flash reflects blood vessels in the eye, .......them to look red on pictures. To avoid this, it may be necessary to take your picture in a bright place or ask the person not to look ......... at the camera.

* ANSWERS

s = 7, l = 11, n = 5. The missing numbers are: 110, 125 and 140 (they increase by 15 each time).

The missing words are: head, attention, recent, additional, illuminate, probably, causing, directly