EVERY child deserves the best possible start in life. A good education is fundamental to an individual’s future prospects. It provides everything a young person needs to do well in their chosen career and produces young people who are polite, confident and articulate.

Despite an explosion in the number of young people going to university, the graduate premium – the earnings difference between graduates and non-graduates over a lifetime – is still almost 35 per cent.

On the face of it, the Department of Education’s league tables published in today’s paper make grim reading for kids in the North-East. Three North-East local authority areas are in the top ten of the most under-performing secondary schools.

That’s a terrible record but it should not be taken at face value. We know schools in our region have hard-working, conscientious staff who care passionately about the young people entrusted to their care.

So what has gone wrong? Could it be the syllabus tinkering by Whitehall that leaves teachers with too much to do and too little time to do it?

Or the funding formula that means schools in the North-East are less well-off than their equivalents in the wealthy South-East? Maybe it is our region’s lamentable levels of poverty and social exclusion which years of Government austerity have exacerbated not alleviated?

We suspect it could be all these factors and more, but the most depressing statistic is that the wealth gap between North and South is set to widen. Some schools are facing a 60 per cent funding cut. How will that translate to a better education?

Some will say these figures show the need for yet another shake-up in the education system. We think the Government needs to do its sums again and give our kids a better deal.