Could do better

The Chief Inspector of Schools, Christine Gilbert, has issued her latest Ofsted report and the results will provide little cheer for either government or teachers - or indeed parents. One in 10 schools is damned as inadequate, while half are described as just "satisfactory". Many of the problems she addresses are not new - poor attendance and low levels of basic skills holding back disadvantaged pupils, problems with pupil referral units and continuing tensions between ethnic and religious groups. It is still the case that one in five pupils leaves primary school unable to read and write properly.

Some of the issues Miss Gilbert addresses can be squarely laid at the door of the parents, but not all - as she points out, some discipline problems can be attributed to poor teaching. What is worrying is the gulf between ministers' rhetoric about record levels of achievement and the Ofsted report. This report suggests that there has been a very poor return for a decade of unprecedented government financial investment in schools.

It is still the case that a child's family background dictates how well he will do at school - it is a sobering thought that this is the result of the educational policies of the past 10 years.