Pupils say teachers are not up to scratch

Only three out of 10 teenagers think they are getting a good education in state schools, a survey shows.

They blame the quality of teaching for putting them off "hard" subjects like science, maths and languages.

Only 28 per cent of 15-yearolds questioned said their teaching was "very good" and one in eight - 13 per cent - thought it was "dreadful".

In state schools, 23 per cent rated their education "very good", compared to 54 per cent in fee-paying schools.

The Government is trying to boost A-level entries in maths and science, concerned at a long-term trend towards "softer" subjects like English, sociology and business studies.

But science was rated the "worst taught" subject, criticised by 22 per cent of pupils, with maths on 21 per cent. More than half of the 2,000 teenagers polled by Bliss magazine said they were "swamped" with homework. More than eight out of 10 said they faced too many exams.

Another study of more than 1,000 children by the New Economics Foundation and Nottingham City Council found that while more than six in 10 primary school pupils rated their classroom experience as positive, this dropped to 27 per cent at secondary school.

Teaching unions dismissed the suggestion that their members are letting children down. A spokesman for the National Union of Teachers said: "The views given by pupils in Ofsted inspections show that their experience in the classroom is getting better. This is also borne out by exam results, which show consistently rising standards at GCSE and A-level."