Bright children 'being failed by comprehensive schools' The disclosure will prompt fresh concerns that bright pupils are being failed in mixed-ability classrooms and renew calls for a return to academic selection. Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, which commissioned the study, said: "These are shocking findings that raise profound concerns about how well we support our most academically able pupils from non-privileged backgrounds. Excellence in maths is crucial in so many areas such as science, engineering, IT, economics and finance. These figures show that few bright non-privileged students reach their academic potential, which is unfair and a tragedy for them and the country as a whole. Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, who co-authored the report, criticised Labour's "gifted and talented" programme, which required all schools to pick out 10 per cent of bright pupils for special help. He said: "Policy and provision for the highly able in England is in a mess. "The root of the problem is that "gifted and talented" is too broad a construct to be the basis of sensible policy. In our view the focus should be on those with the potential for excellence in the major school subjects. The key issue is that secondary schools should be held to account for the progress of the highly able. The OECD tested a random sample of pupils from schools in major countries around the world in subjects such as reading and maths. An analysis of exams sat in 2009 shows that just 1.7 per cent of England's 15-year-olds gained the highest marks - Level 6 - in maths. This compared with an international average of 3.1 per cent, while in Switzerland and Korea, 7.8 per cent of pupils reached this level. Some 3.9 per cent reached the standard in Slovenia, while results stood at 3.6 per cent in the Slovak Republic, 3.3 per cent in France and 3.2 per cent in the Czech Republic. Other countries, which were not part of the OECD league table, registered even higher results. In Shanghai, China, some 26.6 per cent reached the level, while pass rates were as high as 15.6 per cent in Singapore and 10.8 per cent in Hong Kong. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, seized on the results. "This report underlines why the government is determined to act decisively to restore academic rigour to schools and ensure our exams match the world's best," he said. Until we do this, our young people will continue to pay the price for the previous Labour government's decision that lower standards were a price worth paying for higher grades.