THERE is little to be gained in gauging the success of schools exclusively by exam or test results.

Schools in affluent areas will invariably achieve better academic results than schools in disadvantaged areas.

Children from affluent areas will invariably be easier to teach than children from disadvantaged areas.

Straightforward league tables, therefore, do not provide an accurate assessment of teaching standards.

The introduction of a 'value-added' element in the tables is a welcome addition. It begins to take into account the individual circumstances and environment in which each school finds itself.

Nevertheless, even with this component, the merits of school league tables remain dubious.

It is important that none of us judge a school by league tables, and league tables alone.

A simple statistical table can not begin to depict what goes on in classrooms.

It does not highlight the inspirational teacher, able to coax the best possible results from a child who may have failed to make the arbitrary standard set by the Government, but who has achieved his or her full potential.

Nor can it highlight the uninspiring teacher, who has overseen a child to the required standard but has failed to help him or her achieve full potential.

One child has been failed, the other has flourished. Yet the league table will tell the opposite story.

We must not allow the obsession with targets and tables to detract from the true value of education.