Most state school pupils are failing to learn the basics

The results showed that 345,000 pupils did not achieve five passes at grade C or above, including maths and English.

At 440 schools in England – one in seven – more than 70 per cent failed to make t he Government’s benchmark for achievement.

A total of 47.6 per cent of pupils achieved the desired grades, set by Labour as the minimum a child needs to go on to further education.

The figure is a rise on 2007 but will leave ministers struggling to hit a 53 per cent Treasury target by 2011.

The Tories said the results were a damning verdict on the Government’s record, with teenagers sitting GCSEs last year the first generation to have been educated entirely under ­Labour.

Tory schools spokesman Michael Gove said: “The long tail of under­achievement is getting longer under Labour.

“Children finishing school this year have had their whole education under a Labour government and thousands are leaving without a single qualification to speak of.

“Sadly too many children are still being educated at schools which the Prime Minister classes as failing, and the gap between richer and poorer schools is widening. Ministers are failing to deliver their promises on education.”

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said the number of schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils gained the required five good grades had fallen from 1,600 in 1997 to 783 two years ago, 631 in 2007 and by a further third to 440 last year.

Schools that miss the target are judged to be under-performing and fall into the Government’s £400million National Challenge initiative.

It gives them extra funding but also means that they face closure or being turned into an Academy if they do not improve.

Mr Balls insisted that the Government was on track to meet its target of having no school judged failing by 2011.

He said: “This is no time for excuses. I want every child to go to a good school and that means every school getting above 30 per cent.

“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 also welcomed continued ­improvement at academies, established with private backing in the most deprived areas and where ­results are improving faster than at other types of school.

On Tuesday the Government ­announced £10,000 “golden handcuffs” payments for three years’ service to encourage the best teachers to work in England’s most challenging schools with the poorest children.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The 31 per cent decrease in the number of schools below the Government’s floor target is a major achievement by the heads and teachers of these schools.”

But he made clear his anger at how Mr Balls had decided to name failing schools at a crucial point in the ­education cycle last year.

Mr Dunford said: “The rise in GCSE results in these schools, which were castigated in the National Challenge announcement in May just as 16-year-olds were sitting their exams, is ­entirely down to the commitment and hard work of heads and teachers over the last several years.

“The focus on raising achievement in these schools, particularly in maths and English, is producing results. It is regrettable that the task was made more difficult by the nature of the ­National Challenge announcement and the torrent of consultants, plans and meetings that followed.

“It is also disappointing that the promised additional funding is only now, seven months later, coming into these schools.”

Yesterday’s figures showed that a record 65.3 per cent of entrants gained five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C in any subject and 91.6 per cent achieved five or more GCSEs at the pass rate of G or above.

The figures were released ahead of today’s publication of school “league tables” based on their GCSE results.