PARENTS in the North are less likely to see their children get a good job or go on to university than those in London.

Sir Michael Wilshaw has used his final report as Ofsted chief to hammer home the message that he believes a growing North-South split means more than a quarter of secondaries in the North and the Midlands are still not good enough. This year there are 13 local authority areas where every secondary school inspected was rated either good or outstanding – all are in London or the South-East.

Ofsted and its outspoken chief have become experts at pointing out problems but is the school inspection system itself doing enough to solve those problems? Moreover, is it equipping our economy with a top-class workforce as we face up to the challenges of Brexit?

There seems to be a fundamental dishonesty to a system in which the Government tells us 89 per cent of the nation’s schools are “good” or “outstanding”, but its chief inspector says the system is failing children in the North.

How can the system provide an accurate measure of quality when employers continue to complain that school leavers don’t have the right skills for the workplace?

There is a risk that if we continue to operate a tick box system which serves school league table performance then we will fail to meet performance needs in the real world.

In addition, many teachers and heads say that being subject to an Ofsted inspection is akin to a trial where you’re defending yourself against an aggressive prosecution. Under such a stressful and adversarial system it is no wonder that parts of the country are struggling to attract top quality teaching staff and administrators.

In the words of Ofsted’s own grading system we would not go so far as to say it is “inadequate” but it certainly “requires improvement”.