Teachers' fury as PM criticises comprehensives

Teaching unions reacted angrily yesterday after the Prime Minister declared Britain had entered a "post-comprehensive era".

In comments which went further than any previous government pronouncements on the future of the state school system, Tony Blair put the emphasis on providing "different and diverse" types of education. "The old education system, simply based around the comprehensive ideal, thinking that was enough in order to give us top quality education, isn't enough for today's world," he said.

Mr Blair drew a parallel with the National Health Service, saying that a "monolithic" service "delivered in the same old way" also was inadequate for the modern world.

Earlier, explaining his vision for state education, he said: "You retain equality of opportunity in secondary schools, but have a whole range of different and diverse suppliers."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "Comprehensives have had an enviable record of success in the last 20 years. The Government would do well to build on that and not destroy it. The policy of diversity is in danger of creating a hierarchy, making life more difficult for schools at the bottom of the pile."

A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said: "It shows a lack of understanding of what comprehensives are about – they have never been 'one-size-fits-all'. They have always been individual and diverse."

She claimed that Mr Blair was hinting at higher funding for a privileged group of favoured schools, limiting the educational opportunities for many pupils.

Mr Blair's comments echo the dismissive reference last year by his director of communications and strategy, Alastair Campbell, to "bog-standard comprehensives". The resulting row forced ministers on the defensive and left them trying to rebuild relations with the teaching unions.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair came under attack yesterday for setting up sub-standard university foundation courses and using "smoke and mirrors" to hit his target of expanding the number of young people going into higher education.

The Association of University Teachers warned that many so-called "sub-degree courses" relied on colleges with poor libraries and inadequate computer facilities.