A third more schools get black marks from Ofsted

A third more schools than last year are failing to reach minimum standards while almost a third more have developed serious weaknesses, the chief inspector of schools revealed yesterday.

David Bell, the head of the education watchdog Ofsted, told the House of Commons Education Select Committee he was concerned that, 10 years after Ofsted was fored, schools were still failing.

The latest figures showed that 46 schools failed their inspections in the first half of this autumn term, compared with 34 last year - a rise of 35 per cent.

On top of this, 39 schools were judged to have serious weaknesses compared with only 30 during the same period last year.

"Sometimes when I look at the paperwork I wonder how a school has managed to get itself into the state that I see described," Mr Bell said.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Bell blamed poor teaching and weak management.

"I think what concerns me is that some of the issues emerging are those that led to schools getting into difficulties five years ago and 10 years ago," he said.

Schools were likely to be failing due to a combination of factors. "It is very rare for a school to go into special measures on the basis of one problem alone," he said. "It is, dare I say it, a rather predictable litany of problems - teaching not very good, leadership and management poor, governors not holding the school to account."

Figures released by Ofsted yesterday suggested that the rise could be part of a trend.

Officials revealed that the total number of failing schools had already risen last year - ending four years of decreases. The number of failing schools rose steadily throughout the 1990s until it peaked at 515 in the summer of 1998.

Since then there had been a steady downward trend culminating in a low of 274 by the summer of 2002. That figure increased during the school year 2002-03 and there were 282 schools judged to be failing by this summer.

The new figures were issued after Ofsted adopted tougher guidance this September for inspectors that included: "Teaching that is generally satisfactory, with little that is better, merits a judgement of unsatisfactory." Paul Holmes, the Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield and a member of the Education Select Committee, queried whether these new rules might have led to the increase in failing schools.

Mr Bell replied that it was too early to make any firm judgements, but added that he did not believe the rise was due to changes to the inspection.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills highlighted the overall decline in failing schools from 515 in 1997-98 to 282 in 2002-03. "We have cut the number of failing schools," she said. "How-ever, we continue to be relentless in targeting underperformance to raise standards in all schools."