FOR the last decade and more Britain has been falling behind Europe's leading nations in educational standards.

One of the reasons has been the insistence by education "experts" and the teaching unions that mixed ability teaching in comprehensive schools is right for our children.

Now Tony Blair is saying that under a Labour government children will be "grouped" and taught according to ability.

At last, some sane thoughts on education.

The big surprise is the source of those thoughts.

For more than 30 years Labour politicians at national and local level have fiercely opposed any move to teach children according to ability.

Even though it has become blatantly obvious that our schools have been producing pupils whose standards have been well below those of their counterparts in Germany, France, Holland and Belgium, they have refused to take off the blinkers.

Public school-educated Mr Blair is also reported to be in favour of - whisper it quietly - grammar schools.

It is only a few years since Labour politicians were declaring their determination to get rid of the few that survived the "comprehensive" purge.

Now Mr Blair is saying that if parents want grammar schools, they will stay.

So what is behind this dramatic sea change?

At best, common sense has prevailed.

At worst, it is a piece of blatant electioneering aimed directly at thousands of parents who know that mixed ability methods do not work. The system is not fair to the gifted or those with less ability.

Brighter children are held back, leaving them frustrated and unable to achieve their full potential.

And children with modest academic hopes are left floundering. The numbers of children leaving our schools hardly able to read and write is a national disgrace.

Mr Blair will know that he is in for some blistering criticism from the left of his party and many within the unions who will feel he is ditching the very cornerstone of Labour education policy.

Former deputy leader Roy Hattersley will be furious. Only recently he was arguing that there must be no dilution of the comprehensive system.

Mr Blair has changed his party almost beyond recognition. But if he manages to convince the mixed-ability die-hards that they have been heading in the wrong direction all these years, he will surprise an awful lot of people.

His new thinking will worry a Tory government already preparing to make a last stand of Alamo proportions.

Education was one battlefield where Major and his men thought they had the advantage.

Let's hope Mr Blair is not using our schools simply as a means of winning votes.

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