EVIDENTLY, the government is determined to live up to its emphasis on education, education, education.

For now the schools inspection service, which sends shivers down the spines of bad teachers and under-performing schools, is to be let loose on whole local education authorities - and whether they like it or not.

This seems sure to provoke political clashes with Labour's local authority kin running many of the LEAs - if only out of umbrage at a short Tory-style leash being put on by central government, via Education Secretary David Blunkett and the Office for Standards in Education.

But why not?

The LEAs are, after all, as responsible as individual schools are for education standards and, as huge consumers of public money, have an automatic obligation to be accountable for their performance. And, thus, they cannot really object to the notion of independent or even compulsory inspection.

Certainly, schools and teachers should welcome the departure, for it puts pressure on the education authorities to give them the fullest support and resources possible in the task of raising standards.

And, as a result, teachers might pause to give thanks for the school tests and league tables they have long resisted.

For as well as giving parents an individual pointer to the best schools in their area, they also provide an indicator to how well LEAs are performing.

This new move signalled today brings extra, healthy pressure across the education system to raise standards - and there can be no genuine quibble with that aim and the government's welcome adherence to it.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.