Leading article: The blame game

The Institute for Public Policy Research, Tony Blair's favourite think-tank, has done the education world a favour by pointing out that improvements in standards of literacy and numeracy in maths and English tests for 11-year-olds do not appear to have had any impact on how the same children perform later on in GCSEs. However, it would be wrong to decry the Government's achievements in primary schools as a result. Instead, it would be better to lay any blame at the secondary schools' doors – and urge ministers to press full steam ahead with reforms of the curriculum for 11- to 16-year-olds.