THE latest report from Ofsted makes for immensely disappointing reading.

The figures show that the proportion of Bradford pupils attending schools that have been given a “good” or above rating by Ofsted has fallen over the last year.

Now there are just 40 per cent of the district’s pupils attending schools with these gradings, which puts Bradford seventh from the bottom in a secondary schools league table of 150 education authorities across the country.

There were high hopes when Bradford Council took over the running of the schools system from the private contractor Serco, trading as Education Bradford, when that ten-year contract came to an end.

Of course, it is still the relatively early days of Bradford Council’s running of education. The authority recently announced a multi-point plan to drive up education standards, and just two months ago the council set itself the target of hitting the “good” or above rating for every single school by 2017.

So there is still time for Bradford Council to come good on these promises, and perhaps we should be allowing them the time to do so, as disappointing as these latest figures are.

It isn’t all doom and gloom – although primary schools are still 23rd from the bottom of the list, there are 73 per cent of pupils in Bradford who attend schools rated good or higher. And Ofsted concedes that there have been improvements in some areas in the last year.

It cannot be denied, though, that there is a mountain to be climbed if standards are to be forced up, and every effort must be poured into ensuring that these targets are achieved.