LONDON (AFP) — More than one third of English schools are failing to give students a good education, the chief inspector of schools said on Wednesday.
In her annual report, Christine Gilbert said England must do better if it is to compare favourably with the rest of the world.
One in ten 11-year-olds are leaving primary school below the level expected for their age in English and maths, the report released Wednesday said.
And more than half of England's teenagers are leaving school without five GCSEs graded A to C including for maths and English, the report said.
Gilbert said there was still too much variation in achievement between different areas of the country.
Poorer children, such as those who qualify for free school meals, were still less likely to achieve five good GCSEs than their peers, the report said.
In 2007, only 21 percent of children on free school meals achieved this benchmark, compared with 49 percent of other pupils.
Poor quality services existed across the education and care sectors for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Gilbert said, and there was a strong link across every sector between deprivation and poor quality services.
"This means that children and families already experiencing relative deprivation face further inequity in the quality of care and support for their welfare, learning and development," she said.
"In short, if you are poor you are more likely to receive poor services: disadvantage compounds disadvantage," she was quoted by the Press Association saying.
But Gilbert added it was possible to "buck this trend" and there were examples of places that were outstanding.
The report covered the first full year of Ofsted's new wider remit -- they now inspect and regulate social care, children's services, adult learning and skills, as well as schools and childcare.
It found improvements in school standards, with 15 percent of schools judged to be outstanding, up slightly from 14 percent last year.
In primary schools the figure was 13 percent while in secondary schools it was 17 percent.
But more than a third of schools or 37 percent were found to be not good enough - given a rating of "satisfactory" or "inadequate".
More than four in ten or 43 percent of secondary schools were rated no better than satisfactory, although this was down from 49 percent in 2006/07.
In primaries this figure was 37 percent.
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