An excessive or myopic focus on targets can actually narrow and reduce achievement David Bell

David Bell - the head of Ofsted - said the effort to raise standards was right.

But his inspectors found that targets were now more of a stick than a carrot for many teachers and education authorities, so they were feeling cynical or defeated.

Teachers called his comments "the voice of sanity at last".

In a speech to an education conference in York, Mr Bell said his recent annual report had observed that the best primary schools had successfully mixed the literacy and numeracy strategies into the whole curriculum through a process of trial and error, not "centrally directed prescription".

Children of all ages needed a curriculum that was "broad, coherent, stimulating, balanced", not one that was "identikit" for all.

'Targets were right'

The government was right to focus on raising standards, and its policies were bearing fruit.

It had been "absolutely right" to set ambitious targets in areas such as children's attainment at the ages of 11 and 16.

"We were not doing well enough and we had to do better," he said.

The harder the targets become, the more tempting it is to treat them with cynicism or defeatism

"But one of the things inspectors find is that an excessive or myopic focus on targets can actually narrow and reduce achievement by crowding out some of the essentials of effective and broadly-based learning.

"They also find teachers, heads and local authorities for whom targets are now operating more as a threat than a motivator, more as stick than carrot.

"Moreover, the harder the targets become, the more tempting it is to treat them with cynicism or defeatism."

"I have a very real concern that the innovation and reform that we need to see in our schools may be inhibited by an over-concentration on targets."

Results have stalled

So the time had come to listen more to head teachers.

The targets might not be met "but this may be no bad thing if it presents a more realistic picture of expected progress".

I don't think there's a cat in hell's chance of reaching the 2004 targets Head teachers' leader, David Hart

The increasing difficulty schools were having was "amply demonstrated by the plateau that we have seen over the past three years" in 11 year olds' test results in English.

The government is sticking with its ambition of seeing 85% of England's 11 year olds reach the standard expected of their age by next year - even though its previous targets were not reached.

Mr Bell has been reported as having told ministers privately that the new targets will not be met and should be scrapped.

He did not say that in public.

But the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy, said: "We hear the voice of sanity at last. Mr Bell's analysis echoes the findings of our survey of teachers' and head teachers' views."

He added: "Mr Bell should join the union in calling on the government to abandon the system of targets."

'Necessary measure'

The leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, called Mr Bell's speech a "dose of common sense" which, coming from the chief inspector, "has to make a significant impact".

"I don't think there's a cat in hell's chance of reaching the 2004 targets," he said.

If the government persisted in believing it could achieve them with "more of the same" it was "riding for a significant fall" and would be damaged at the next election.

The Department for Education said its aim was for schools to achieve high standards in literacy and numeracy, "at the centre of a broad, rich and above all enjoyable primary experience".

But it was vital to have "robust ways of measuring this".

An over-reliance on targets would be counter-productive.

"But we strongly agree with David Bell when he says we simply cannot go back to the days when neither parents nor teachers had information about school performance."