07 February 2003
David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, warned this week that many pupils, particularly those who find academic learning difficult, would stall the government's improvement agenda.
Speaking after the publication of Ofsted's Annual report on standards and quality in education 2001/02, Bell said: 'It concerns me that despite the progress we are undoubtedly making in raising standards in literacy and numeracy, one quarter of our pupils, a high proportion of them boys, are transferring to secondary schools without reaching the national expectations in English and mathematics.
'Even more strikingly, we are still faced with the fact that almost half of all boys fail to reach the required standard in writing.'
Last year, the government missed its primary school test targets in maths and English.
But Bell said that in the ten years of Ofsted's existence, schools had got better. He said: 'In a number of places, improvements in teaching and the quality of leadership have been responsible for striking progress from pupils.'
Now only 4% of lessons were unsatisfactory and it was 'no longer unusual' for inspectors to report that all teaching in a school was of an appropriate standard, Bell said. But he warned: 'Is satisfactory good enough, given the demands of pupils and the rising expectations from wider society?'
Bell also pointed to serious challenges facing the further education sector and called for a clearer strategy in the provision of education for 16-19-year-olds.
He said: 'I am concerned that, of the general further education colleges we have inspected so far, almost a fifth have been judged as inadequate. Moreover, management and leadership in colleges are too often insufficiently focused on the quality of teaching and learning.'
However, the Association of Colleges blamed the inspection regime. Chief executive David Gibson said judgement on leadership and management is built up from a view of subject areas. 'If two blocks (out of 14) are considered less than satisfactory, this can lead to a college being judged as failing,' he said.
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