Schools should teach parenting, suggests former Minister

The indicators would record children's abilities at the ages of three and five.

This would enable class, educational and other differences between them to be narrowed from a young age.

Mr Field also suggested reform of the education system, which he said should be split into three parts, starting with "foundation years", covering the period between conception and five years old.

Designed to focus on the early stages of children's lives, these would lead into the school years, followed by further, higher and continuing education.

The recommendations, contained in Mr Field's report, The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults, were published by the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances yesterday.

Huge class differences were found in the range of children's abilities on their first day at school.

The role of parents in determining their children's future, both in terms of employment and home life, was also underlined in the research.

The life chances indicators should be published each year by the Government so that taxpayers can see what progress is being made, Mr Field said.

In addition, they should be calculated at a local level, so that parents can know how their children are progressing.

Local figures would show taxpayers whether their authority was running the foundation years effectively to improve the life chances of poorer children and schools should teach parenting and life skills.

He wrote: "If we can ensure that parents from poor families know how best to extend the life opportunities of their children then – even if we cannot end income poverty in the short term – we can break this inter-generational cycle of disadvantage.

"We can ensure that poor children don't inevitably take their poverty into adulthood."