Fortunately there are outside comparisons

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (- PISA) recently published its latest report, surveying the attainment of 15 year olds in 57 leading economies.

It makes worrying reading. Between 2000 and 2006 the UK students slipped from a ranking of 7th best in reading, to 17th, slipped from 8th in Mathematics to 24th, and from 4th to 14th in Science.

In One respect this grim picture cannot be blamed on the Government. It has increased the spending per pupil in state schools to £5290, - an increase of 87% in real terms, that it when allowing for inflation.

When the first PISA study was done in 2000, there was some scepticism about the UK rankings. There were suspicions that our sample had to been carefully selected to represent the best among our students. The next PISA study in 2003 saw us missing from the ranking tables. It seems that our sample size was too small.

Now in the third PISA there is nowhere to hide, unless we withdraw from the studies altogether.
Instead we have been reduced to claiming that we are still (just) above average, at 14th ranking, in science. We have dumbed down to deceive our own people, but we cannot deceive these standard international tests.

As everyone is coming to acknowledge, the money was spent but reforms were ignored.