Light-hearted pledge that is now no laughing matter

It was the first of the many targets set by Labour on taking office in 1997 – that 80 per cent of 11-year-olds should reach the required standard in English and 75 per cent in maths by 2002.

As a result the question on everybody's lips at the time was: what happens if ministers failed to deliver it?

David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education, was quite candid. His head would be "on the block" if the Government failed.

It appeared quite a safe pledge to make. Few people, if any, thought he would be in the same job five years later.

Few people, too, would have thought that his deputy, Estelle Morris, would remain in the department.

But she did, and she did make a copycat pledge that the Government failed to reach.

Aides insisted she did not resign as a result of the tests issue but some indicated it could have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

At the very least, it showed how determinedly the Conservatives were gunning for her – the fact that they had scoured Hansard to find the pledge at a time when the education agenda could hardly have been more packed with other controversies – A levels, modernising the teaching profession and the row over excluding pupils who had made death threats to their teacher to name but a few.

The pledge was simple to make but, as teachers' unions and heads pointed out at the time, it would be very difficult to deliver.

At the time, the percentage of pupils reaching the required standard in both tests was hovering around the 60 per cent mark.

Or, to put it bluntly, as Chris Woodhead, the then chief inspector of schools often did, two out of five children could not read, write or add up properly by the time they left primary school.

The Government ploughed millions of pounds into improving standards in primary schools in a bid to reach the targets. It introduced a daily literacy hour in schools and a daily maths lesson.

As a result, the percentage points began to improve dramatically at first. In the first year of the literacy and numeracy strategies, the English results rose by six per cent and maths by ten per cent.

Ministers were jubilant and there was even talk of reaching the targets a year earlier.

Professor Michael Barber, the then head of the Department for Education's Standards and Effectiveness Unit – now a senior policy adviser in Downing Street – urged caution.

He could see it would become more difficult to improve standards as the percentages increased because you would be left with a hard core of pupils who might have special needs or did not speak English.

However, it was at this euphoric time that Ms Morris made her pledge – in a light-hearted manner – to offer her resignation. (Ironically, in the same speech she also offered the resignation of Charles Clarke – a junior minister in her department and her successor.)

On Monday, Damian Green, the Conservative education spokesman, released details of the resignation pledge and a subsequent statement to the Commons select committee on education saying she had never promised to resign. She had been caught "red-handed" and should go, he argued.

Graham Lane, the leader of the country's local education authorities, insisted the pledge had been made in a jokey atmosphere and added: "Things have come to a pretty pass if you can't even tell a joke in the House of Commons."

The truth, as often happens, probably lies somewhere between. It was made in light-hearted vein but – with hindsight – should never have been made.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, offered an alternative view of the significance of her pledge in evaluating her performance.

He said that the only reason this year's test results were considered a failure is because of the target.

In reality, they show a remarkable improvement in standards in the three R's under Labour – a 20 per cent increase in the numbers reaching the maths standard and a similar increase in English.

That, it can be argued, is Estelle Morris' legacy to the nation – rather than the fact she failed to meet the target.