LONDON, Jan 10: One in five schools in England fails to give pupils a decent education in maths and English, although the trend is improving, exam league tables showed on Thursday.

Some 639 state-funded schools last year failed to meet the government target of 30 per cent of their students achieving a good grade — at least a C — in five GCSEs including English and maths.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in November he wanted all schools to reach this level by 2012 in the exams taken by 15 and 16-year-olds.

He said those that failed to hit the target faced closure or federation with another school.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said 150 more schools had made the required grade in Thursday’s tables than the previous year.

“The vast majority are improving year on year and those at the lowest level are receiving intensive support.”

He said improvement over the past decade was excellent — in 1997 only half of schools reached the target.

The opposition Conservatives said the tables showed that more than 500,000 pupils were at schools the prime minister regarded as failing.—Reuters