Bradford's senior councillor for education rejects UKIP calls for him to stand down

Bradford UKIP chairman Jason Smith said Councillor Ralph Berry - the Council's executive member for children and young people’s services - should resign after the local authority area came joint second from bottom in national GCSE league tables.

Mr Smith said: "Ralph Berry has overseen one disaster after another in Bradford education, from the damning education report that he refused to release to the people of Bradford, to the revelations that Bradford’s schools and GCSE results are near the bottom of national leagues tables.

"The final straw was the information we have received that confirms that progress made at secondary school for disadvantaged pupils has dropped dramatically.

"We therefore call upon Cllr Ralph Berry to resign his portfolio and hand over to someone who is prepared to intervene more often, be more challenging of schools, and less accepting of excuses for underperformance."

But Cllr Berry rebuffed the criticism and referred to a recent report commissioned by the local authority by education expert Professor David Woods.

He said: "Of course I'm not going to stand down. The [Woods] report came about as a result of concerns I had raised and I am determined to make sure its recommendations are implemented.

"UKIP have made no mention of their plan to force new grammar schools on the city, which would be a disaster, and their report is riddled with inaccuracies.

"To turn things around requires a range of partners with a common objective. UKIP fail to recognise that schools have a level of autonomy.

"Singling the success of schools down to one person is ridiculous. I have never said schools are where we want them to be."

UKIP yesterday released its own education review.

It proposes to "slim down" the Council's education department and send ten new English and maths teachers into struggling primary schools. If the schools continued to struggle, the party suggests forcing them to become academies.