NATURALLY, everyone shares the Prime Minister's desire to improve educational achievement. There are serious differences of opinion, however, on how improvements can be made.

Today, the Government will unveil a five-year plan which will set out its education policies should it win the next General Election.

Mr Blair is adamant the proposals will not require more selection. We do not reach his conclusions.

The creation of 'foundation' schools will effectively create a 'two-tier' education system, in which the best-performing schools are given the resources to expand.

An inevitable consequence will be that poorly performing schools are denied the means to improve.

Such reforms threaten to turn the clock back to the split between secondary modern and grammar schools.

It is an illusion to think that widening the choices available to children will raise standards across the whole spectrum of our schools.

Inevitably, parents will want to opt for the better performing schools, which will become over-subscribed.

The real choice of where children will be educated, therefore, will not lie with parents, but with the headteachers and governors of the most popular schools.

Mr Blair may not wish to contemplate it, but his reforms promise to deny choice and impose selection on thousands of our children.

We urge the Government to re-examine its education plan. While there is a need to reward excellence in our schools, there is also a need to recognise that under-achieving schools will not miraculously start to achieve if they are starved of investment and resources.