In Russian culture education is highly valued - to be educated, to be literate is a prize

Professor Julian Elliott

The study examined the attitudes of 1,000 parents in Sunderland in the north east of England, 1,400 in St Petersburg in Russia and 500 in the state of Kentucky in the United States.

The report suggests English parents regarded it as teachers' - rather than their - responsibility to push children to achieve.

Professor Julian Elliott, one of the report authors, said parents should realise they had a vital role to play in encouraging pupils to achieve.

'Means to an end'

Education in England was only valued instrumentally, as a means to an end, Professor Elliott said.

"People say OK, it's important in terms of getting a job or in terms of going to university to get a job," Professor Elliott said.

"But in Russian culture education is highly valued - to be educated, to be literate is a prize.

"There is an almost anti-intellectual culture in many parts of the Western world," he said.

Russian parents were far more pushy when it came to their children's achievement - 52% were highly satisfied with their performance, compared to 81% in the North East, the researchers noted.

Homework

The Russians also expected their children to do more homework.

"It's a question of what people see as important - in Russia, education is very important and parents want their children to do loads of homework," Professor Elliott said.

"Nine and 10 year olds in Russia are doing more work than 14 and 15 year olds here and in the States.

"But Russian parents still want their children to do even more work."

Posh and Becks

Professor Elliott said society needed to decide what it valued and current role models - such as David and Victoria Beckham - did not stress the importance of education.

"Maybe this is OK, maybe we want our children to have more fun.

"But the price we'll have to pay is that we won't be able to compete with other countries, like Russia, Singapore and Taiwan.

"And we can't match them unless we are prepared to work for it," he said.

The findings of the Sunderland University study were very similar to those made by Professor Michael Barber - now head of the prime minister's new "Delivery Unit" - while at Keele University in 1994.