Blame game turns to shame

Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister, took The Times to task for overstating dropout rates last month. But this week, the boot was on the other foot when the newspaper challenged his own use of statistics.

Research has shown that pupils from the lower socioeconomic groups are the most likely to get inflated predictions of their A-level grades.

Embarrassingly, the Department for Education and Skills began a consultation last month claiming just the opposite. Writing in The Times this week, Mr Rammell was was at pains to stress that only one sentence in the DfES press release was incorrect. What a shame that it was quite a long sentence and right at the top.