Wales rids its schools of league tables

Pressure to abolish controversial league tables in English secondary schools is growing after the National Assembly for Wales abandoned tabling in the principality.

Teaching unions welcomed the Welsh decision and called on England to follow suit. They warned that staff could desert English secondary schools in favour of a career in Wales or Northern Ireland, where the tables have also been scrapped.

Announcing the abolition yesterday, Wales's Minister for Education, Jane Davidson, said performance tables had placed an unnecessary burden on schools and had lost the support of teachers and the public.

But the Department for Education and the Scottish Executive are adamant the tables will continue to be published. In England the results in both primary and secondary schools are published, while Scotland restricts it to secondary schools.

Chris Keates, of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, congratulated the Welsh Assembly for removing a "divisive" and unpopular measure which had "no educational value".