LONDON: More than 340,000 children in England missed the government’s target of achieving five good GCSE passes including English and Maths this summer, according to data published on Wednesday. And at one in seven schools, less than 30 per cent of pupils managed the exam target.

But the number of these poorly performing schools fell to 440 from more than 630 last year.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said that meant the government was on track to meet its “National Challenge” goal of having no schools below the 30 per cent threshold by the end of 2011.

“We are putting in the extra resources to help heads reach this and local authorities will shortly be announcing their plans to make sure all schools reach this target by 2011,” he said.

But the Conservatives said too many children were still being educated at failing schools.

“Ministers are failing to deliver their promises on education,” said Conservative Shadow Children’s Secretary Michael Gove.

The statistics were released a day before the publication of school league tables showing their performance in GCSE and A-level exams.—Reuters