Conor Ryan, who was David Blunkett's special adviser when he was education secretary, says there are too many bad schools and that the education system is failing too many children.

In a booklet for the Centre of Policy Studies, Mr Ryan says the government should be ready to use its powers of intervention and close bad schools more rapidly.

Resources from the failing school should be switched to the expansion of good schools, he adds.

"The government should make a start by making clear that any school not reaching its exam performance targets in 2004 and 2006 will be expected to close," he says.

Current legislation does allow for the closure of schools after bad inspection reports, but Mr Ryan argues that the process takes too long.

Missed target

Although he says much progress has been made, Mr Ryan is critical about literacy rates in England and Wales, saying a quarter of 11 year olds cannot read.

While praising the literacy hour, brought in by the Labour government, he says there should be more teaching of reading through "synthetic phonics," where pupils learn the basic sounds of letters and main word sounds first.

"Despite recent improvements, the government has not met its literacy targets in 2002, which means a quarter of children are unable to read or write properly," he says.

In answer to the problem of teacher shortages, Conor Ryan says there should be an expansion of the programme of training teachers on the job, known as the Graduate Teaching Programme .

He says schools should be able to mix classroom training with distance learning.