Children's plan to be unveiled

LONDON - The government is due to unveil details on Tuesday of a 10-year plan to create a "world class" education for every child in England.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls will give details of the plan in parliament, to include a review of primary education, an earlier start for language learning and changes to national pupil tests.

The announcement comes after a government survey on the wellbeing of children in England was published last month which found more needed to be done to close the gap in achievement for children from deprived backgrounds.

Balls told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show at the weekend that Jim Rose, a former director of schools inspectorate Ofsted, would conduct a "root and branch" review of primary education, the first in more than a decade.

"He will look at the primary curriculum and see how we can take out some of the clutter, reduce the number of set subjects so that we have more space for maths and have more space for reading," Balls said.

He said the review would make sure that every child is taught a foreign language in primary school, as recommended by Lord Dearing in a government report earlier this year.

Balls said national standard assessment tests of pupils -- used to monitor their progress and rank their schools -- could become less rigid.

He said pupils could be tested when they were ready, rather than all at the same time, if a pilot programme currently under way in 500 schools proved successful.

But he said he would not abolish the tests, despite pressure from teaching unions and education academics who say they put unneeded pressure on pupils, parents, schools and teachers.

"I think parents want to know the information, not only about their child but how their school is doing," he said.

The plan's publication comes a month after an academic report said the government had spent half a billion pounds in a failed attempt to boost reading standards in primary schools in the seven years to 2005.

The opposition Liberal Democrats said the plan was "change for change's sake".

"More reviews and curriculum upheaval will do nothing to improve the quality of education in schools today," said LibDem Children's spokesman David Laws.