ANALYSIS By Mike Baker

The targets show how Gordon Brown's schools policy is changing

Pssst! Want to know what the government has in store for education in England over the next four years?

If so, then don't bother with all those speeches, parliamentary announcements or even the frequent games of musical chairs that bring us a new secretary of state every 18 months or so.

What you need is a copy of the "PSA Delivery Agreements". Not heard of this snappily titled volume? Don't worry; I know where you can get hold of one.

They were published quietly off the back of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which because it was about where the cash goes hogged all the headlines.

But if you delve deeply into the website of HM Treasury you will find them: pages and pages of them.

And what are PSAs? Well, the acronym stands for Public Service Agreements. That is "targets" to the rest of us.

I hope I haven't lost you yet; keep with it, I promise you it's worth it. It is like climbing a hill: an effort to get there but you are rewarded with an overview of the rolling landscape of education policy.

So, for example, the targets cover things like: how children in England should perform in the national tests, how many should achieve five "good" GCSEs, and the numbers eating school meals.

Taking aim

Some are remarkably specific, covering things such as: reducing bullying, promoting engagement in youth and sports clubs, and the numbers taking A-level maths or PhDs in science.

Despite the talk of a 'bonfire of targets', education still faces a very long list

PSAs were invented by the new Labour government in 1998. They are, in effect, a contract between the Treasury and the spending departments.

Back then there were 600 targets. These were then translated into further sets of targets - I won't bore you with their names - producing in total thousands of targets for both national and local government.

Since then the government has been made aware just how stultifying such a large range of targets has been for the teachers, head teachers, and education officers who have to meet them.

So the number of targets has been reduced steadily over the years. Or has it?

This year we are supposedly down to just 30 PSAs across all of government. But these are 30 headings. Within each heading there are several individual targets.

Standing still

Let's have a look at the education targets. They come under two main headings. The first focuses on raising standards generally. The second - and this is the interesting bit - is entirely devoted to narrowing the gap between disadvantaged children and others.

We are seeing a major shift. In the Blair years, the focus was on raising overall standards. For Gordon Brown, while this is still important, there is to be a new focus on narrowing the gap

Since this government came to power promising to tackle inequality, you might have thought it would have made some progress after 10 years. But what does the Treasury conclude about progress so far?

"It is a considerable achievement... that the gap between children from lower income and disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers has not widened," it says.

So, it is an "achievement" that there has been no progress!

Letting that extraordinary statement pass for now, what do the PSA targets tell us about the targets that schools, colleges and universities face between now and 2011?

Well, the short answer is that despite the talk of a "bonfire of targets", education still faces a very long list.

Admittedly one or two targets no longer appear; there is nothing on reducing exclusions or truancy, for example.

On message

But for the Department for Children, Schools and Families I counted at least 24 separate targets. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has a further 10 targets.

Almost half of all these targets relate to narrowing the gap in educational achievement between rich and poor.

These cover everything from the achievement of five-year-olds in the Early Years Foundation Stage through to the numbers going to university.

It was interesting that this week's Ofsted annual report - perhaps the most "on message" ever seen - also focused heavily on the educational achievement gap.

In short, we are seeing a major shift. In the Blair years, the focus was on raising overall standards. For Gordon Brown, while this is still important, there is to be a new focus on narrowing the gap.

The second main focus is on basic skills. A forest of targets covers this area, ranging from the language and literacy skills of children starting school through to functional numeracy and literacy for adults.

And the third is on education for economic growth, covering everything from reducing the numbers of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education or training to producing more apprentices.

Taken together, these targets reflect Gordon Brown's priorities for education: reducing inequality, boosting basic skills, and generating economic growth.

The big question about targets, though, is whether as everyone scuttles off to meet them, other aspects of education get ignored or even damaged in the process.