The chief inspector of schools has warned that schools are failing to teach literacy properly.

One in four children was leaving school with poor literacy, David Bell found.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Sheila Dainton, education policy adviser at the ATL, said: "We are witnessing the consequences of the original design faults ATL warned of over five years ago. Minor adjustments to the strategies may be necessary, but radical change cannot be on the agenda.

"Teachers know that, as things stand, the national strategies do not best serve the needs of the slowest learners.

"ATL has consistently argued that the original Literacy Task Force was set up in too much of a hurry and drew selectively on a limited amount of research to support its claims.

"As far back as 1997, the Association warned that we have significant reservations about the wholesale adoption of the National Literacy Strategy as a suitably comprehensive literacy programme for all primary schools."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

John Bangs, head of the education with the National Union of Teachers, said: "These strategies were considered a great leap forward by the government.

"But in the last couple of years everything has been skewed as pressure has been put on schools to meet the targets that Blunkett and his ministers threatened to resign over.

"The malevolent emphasis on targets is to blame."