Education chiefs in Sandwell have defended the performance of primary schools after a national report criticised literacy and numeracy levels.

More than three million children have left primary school in the last 10 years unable to read, write and add up properly, official figures revealed yesterday.

In Sandwell last year, 23 per cent of 11-year-olds failed to achieve Level 4 in English, 26 per cent failed in maths and 15 per cent in science. Nationally over the past decade, 3,114,000 pupils failed to achieve Level 4 in their English, maths and science Sats tests and last year 230,000 pupils did not reach the expected target in the three core subjects.

A report by think tank the Policy Exchange suggested the figures showed Government strategies aimed at improving literacy and numeracy in primary schools had failed, with more than £2 billion spent on national strategies for English and maths since 1998.

But Sandwell schools chief Councillor Ian Jones said the borough’s primary schools had improved their results in English and maths in the past five years, beyond the national rate of improvement.

He admitted the borough may have had a “longer way to go” than other areas of the country but said they were on course to hit national targets within the next couple of years.

“It seems that where we have been able to focus our efforts on these two subjects we have seen improvements,” he said.

“I couldn’t comment on whether the strategy has been a success elsewhere but is has helped us in Sandwell with a concentration on English and maths and there have been improvements a double and three times the rate of improvement nationally.”

He added between 2004 and 2008 English and maths combined had seen an improvement of 10 per cent in primaries.