TONY Blair visited the North-East yesterday to make his last school visit as Prime Minister - but admitted being baffled by science as a pupil.

Mr Blair - who famously made education, education, education his priority in 1996 - opened two new science labs at Carmel RC Technology College, Darlington.

Speaking to pupils afterwards, Mr Blair said: "Science was my worst subject. My physics teacher said in all his time he had never come across such a poor grasp of the subject as mine."

Mr Blair's grasp of technology was also questioned. In December 1996, he visited Carmel when it became a technology college - but had difficulty unveiling a plaque under a motorised curtain.

Principal Jim O'Neill said: "When I mention that to people, they say 'that was when the curtain stuck'.

"Ten years on I can say (to Mr Blair) - you were meant to click the return button on the computer, not keep your finger on it."

Mr Blair later gave his apologies to the technology department, who designed the motorised curtain, and admitted: "You have been waiting ten-and-a-half years for me to say that."

Earlier, Mr Blair donned his hard hat and high-visibility jacket on a tour of Carmel's £10.5 million redevelopment, which includes a new science block and two other blocks.

He was protected from the driving rain by an umbrella, and later told the London-based journalists: "The weather is never normally like this in the North-East."

Mr O'Neill also praised the Labour Government's record on school investment.

"As part of the redevelopment, we have been working in 20 temporary classrooms," he said. "In the not too distant past, this wouldn't have been seen as temporary - it would have been the long-term solution.

"Thankfully this is now changing, and standards are changing, and have changed remarkably."

Mr O'Neill ended the speeches by presenting the Prime Minister, who has played on Carmel's courts, with two tennis rackets - one for him, and one for his son, Leo.

Mr Blair replied: "This is wonderful. I often get presents I can't use - but this is one I will use."