Government education strategy in the UK damaged by 'overload' of initiatives

A series of government initiatives for teachers and schools in UK led to "overload" which harmed their potential effectiveness, according to an official review published yesterday.

National Strategies were introduced by New Labour in 1998 to improve education standards, ranging from numeracy and literacy to pupil behaviour, and brought in centralised methods of achieving them.

They will be phased out next year and schools will be given greater responsibility for improving their own results.

An Ofsted review found that almost all school officials surveyed considered the strategies had helped improve the quality of teaching and learning and they valued their training and support materials.

But the frequent introduction of new initiatives led to overload and diminished their potential effectiveness.

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said: "We make no apologies for taking a robust approach to raising performance in schools in the late nineties.

"A relentless focus on the 3Rs, coupled with record investment and rapid intervention has led to the highest ever school standards - and Ofsted's report is clear that the National Strategies have made a real impact on teaching and learning."