Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Morris says sorry for comprehensive error

Richard Garner
Wednesday 05 December 2001 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Government apologised for downgrading the results of "bog-standard" comprehensives after publishing GCSE league tables. Ministers have been forced to concede they were wrong on the difference in the improvement rate between the new specialist schools they have set up and existing comprehensives.

Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, had claimed the rise in pupils obtaining five top-grade passes at GCSE was 1.3 per cent in specialist schools, compared to 0.6 per cent in other comprehensives. Now her department had admitted the true figure for other comprehensives is 1 per cent.

The Government was also accused of trying to bury its apology in a note at the bottom of a press release on the primary school performance league tables. A DfES spokeswoman said: "This error came to light well after the tables were published and the press release issued."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in