Vincent McDonnell says results will improve next year

The company, which has managed state schools in Islington since April 2000, was hired to tackle academic underachievement in the borough.

The primary school performance tables, published on Wednesday, showed that Islington now had the seventh worst results in England - a fall of 22 places since last year.

The aggregate point score for tests in English, maths and science showed that Islington had suffered the biggest fall of any authority in England.

As an average point score, the primary results are even bleaker for Islington, with only three authorities in England scoring lower.

Struggling

In secondary schools, the authority has also struggled at GCSE, with only two authorities recording lower scores.

Only 28.7% of pupils achieved five or more good GCSEs, while in the best authorities more than 60% of pupils were achieving this.

Islington education authority was stripped of its education services after a damning inspection report - and the running of schools was contracted out to the private sector.

CEA@Islington remains optimistic that this is a "temporary setback" and director of schools, Vincent McDonnell, says that he is "confident that 2002 will see a significant change".

A spokesperson pointed to the positive findings of a recent inspection and said that schools were now "on the right track" and that improved results would follow.

This year's primary results were also lowered by the annulment of test scores at Hanover School in Islington, after an inquiry into irregularities in how tests were administered.