Bradford's private education contract was seriously underfunded from the start and too many children are beginning school without English as a first language.

That is just part of a damning indictment of primary education in Bradford by the senior Tory councillor ousted from his role of running the district's schools.

In an emergency debate on the state of our primaries at last night's full meeting of Bradford Council, Councillor Dale Smith made it clear that he had not wanted to relinquish his role of executive member for children and young people.

And he spelled out the many reasons why he felt his sacking by Council leader Kris Hopkins had more to do with a raft of deep-seated problems in the district's education system than his own performance.

In a speech which earned him a cross-party standing ovation, Coun Smith (Wharfedale) said: "I genuinely could not and cannot identify where I have significantly failed and how a change of face will produce miracles - but for the sake of children and young people I hope it does.

"Apart from my family and my own integrity, nothing is more important to me than the well being of all the children and the young people in the Bradford district.

"I seek for them, and I will continue to seek for them, nothing more nor less than I seek for my own children and grandchildren - for all their futures that they will share together."

Coun Smith outlined several factors which he said accounted for the relative poor performance of primary schools compared to others around the country including the value of the original Education Bradford contract, which he claimed had been underfunded, "perhaps to the extent of £5.4 million".

Coun Smith also called for more support for children who start school without a good knowledge of English.

He said: "Too many children come to school with very little understanding in English and very often in some homes very little English is spoken.

"I am not a racist - as I hope my friends across the district will testify - and while I welcome the diversity and enrichment from a district of many communities, it has to be said that English is the language of this country and real achievement and progress will not be made until this is accepted and embraced as a fact."

He also lambasted the "many" other parents who failed to recognise the "crucial importance" of giving their children adequate pre-school support.

And he said the reorganisation of the school system from a three-tier to a two-tier system, which had started just before Education Bradford was awarded the contract, was still affecting schools' performance with old and run-down school buildings remaining an issue.

Coun Smith said: "Of course clearly not everyone is satisfied with me, some may rightly and genuinely question my ability, dedication or commitment but some people may simply be miffed and hence frustrated because I did not, and will not, kowtow to every flick of their fingers.

"I have been resolute in my position as champion of Bradford; perhaps unfortunately for me I may have stamped on the same toes twice - but as far as I am concerned clearly not hard enough!"

Councillor Phil Thornton (Windhill and Wrose), who is in charge of scrutinising Bradford's education services, said public confidence in the district's primary education system would fail if changes did not occur.

He said: "Education is the most important investment that we can make in this district.

"We have massive plans for economic regneration, development and expansion.

"But regeneration is not just about buildings and infrastructure it's about people.

"Our children are not even getting second best. The reality is they are getting second worst.

"We cannot seriously expect to retain public confidence when we are asking parents to place their children into an education system that is all but the worst in the country."

Coun Smith's successor, Councillor Colin Gill (Con, Bingley) opened his maiden speech with a tongue-in-cheek comment, saying he had "not taken a great deal of interest" in education until he was given the job.

He added: "Education is about the most important thing this local authority does. But the contract is so opaque I still do not know what I am in control of.

"We are on the right road but we are simply not travelling fast enough."

Councillor David Ward (Idle and Thackley), the Liberal Democrat group education spokesman, said he believed little would come from the emergency debate.

He reminded councillors that then Education Secretary Estelle Morris had forced the Council to select a private company to run its schools in 2001 after a damning report by schools' inspection service Ofsted.

Councillors passed a motion proposed by Labour group leader, Councillor Ian Greenwood (Little Horton) that the Council "noted with extreme concern the disappointing results for primary education".

The motion added it welcomed the "root-and-branch review" of primary education to be carried out by its Young People and Education and Improvement Committee and instructed the findings to be reported by the end of April next year.

l Following last week's primary league tables, Education Bradford has released figures which it says shows the actual progress made by 11-year-olds in Key Stage Two exams since 2001 in English, maths and science.

The figures show that in all three subjects, only a relatively small number of authorities have seen greater improvements.

Education Bradford says English results have improved by seven per cent since 2001, mathematics by nine per cent, and science by four per cent.

Education Bradford managing director John Gaskin said: "This demonstrates that Bradford has made more improvement than all but 21 education authorities in English, nine authorities in mathematics and one authority in science.

"The aggregated figures for English and mathematics show improvement bettered by only 14 authorities, while the aggregated figure for all three subjects shows only seven authorities did better. The ranking of authorities by the aggregate of the results for each subject is the headline that captures attention.

"We do not want to be 149th out of 150 authorities, and have put in place actions to bring about further improvement. We know that the rate of improvement has to be accelerated. It is equally important to acknowledge the improvement that has been made over the last five years."

  • At last, our questions answered