STANDARDS in the county’s primary schools have fallen back slightly for the second successive year, according to the latest Government league tables.

Results for the Key Stage 2 attainment tests sat by 11-year-olds show that across the county, there was small drop in the percentage of pupils achieving the nationally expected level in two of the core subjects.

In all three subjects – maths, English and science – Kent was below the national average. In English, 72.8 per cent of pupils in Kent reached the nationally-expected level compared with 73.4per cent last year.

There was better news in maths, where there was a small improvement, with 70.6 per cent of pupils reaching the expected level compared with 68 per cent last year.

However, in science the picture was less rosy. After an improvement last year, when 85 per cent of pupils reached the expected level, results fell back in 2002 to 83.7per cent.

The results means Kent is close to the bottom third of education authorities, being ranked 96th out of 150 local education authorities. That is a drop of three places from last year.

Nationally, 75 per cent of pupils reached the level expected for their age in English; 73 per cent in maths and 86 per cent in science. These results were also well below the Government’s own targets.

County education chiefs admitted Kent needed to do more to push up standards.

Cllr Paul Carter, KCC's cabinet member for education, said: “Many of our schools are achieving excellent results. However, of great concern is the so-called long and under-performing tail. In September, we launched the Primary Excellence Project, a group of 20 very experienced heads seconded to work with all primary schools to raise standards across the board.”

“We need to make sure our support services to primary schools are of the very best quality and efficiently deployed.”

In the neighbouring authority of Medway, standards in all three subjects improved. The percentage of pupils achieving the expected level in English rose to 72 per cent from 69.3 per cent and in science from 82.2 per cent to 83.4per cent.

However, it was maths that there was a dramatic improvement, with 68.8 per cent of 11-year-olds achieving the expected level compared with 63.2 per cent the previous year. Despite the improvements, Medway ranked 123 out of the country’s 150 local education authorities.

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