5/20/2008 6:41:00 AM
The Times 20 May
Progress in raising school standards has “stalled”, amid fears that the attainment gap between rich and poor shows no signs of closing, the Chief Inspector of Schools suggested yesterday.Christine Gilbert, the head of Ofsted, said it was unacceptable that 20 per cent of pupils still failed to master basic English and maths when they left primary school, while 10 per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds who dropped out of education were not in work.The link between these two groups of underperformers was very strong and was showing no sign of weakening, she said. “We are not seeing enough movement there. The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is not reducing quickly enough,” Ms Gilbert said.“We think standards have stalled and we think we need to accelerate improvement, and we are looking at ways of doing that.”Ms Gilbert’s comments appear to contradict claims by ministers of “unprecedented improvements” and a continual and “unarguable evidence of rising achievement” in school standards.Times
Lead Story | Curriculum / Quality Assurance
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