John Clare, writing in the Telegraph Education, comments on levels of literacy and numeracy for school-leavers.

Statistics just published by the Department of Education show that 300,000 pupils a year - 47 per cent - leave school at 16 without having achieved "level 2 in functional maths", and 265,000 - 42 per cent - fail to achieve "level 2 in functional English".

Level 2, according to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, is the level necessary to "participate in life, learning and work". So our education system fails to meet the most basic needs of four pupils in 10.

Alan Johnson, in his first speech as Education Secretary, said: "The measure for educational achievement is not how much money you put in but what results you get out."

On that basis, the failure of this Government, which has almost doubled spending on education, is stark.