An MHK has been told she will have to wait for a school-by-school breakdown of attainment levels for primary pupils.

Former children’s champion Daphne Caine (Garff) tabled written Tynwald questions demanding a breakdown of percentages for children - as young as four - who had achieved the ’Good Level of Development’ measure for reception class children.

She sought a similar breakdown of ’attainment levels’ for year six children, aged 10 and 11.

Education chiefs said that, as schools only submitted the data last month, it had not yet been error-checked so could not be released.

But Education Minister Graham Cregeen said of the GLD percentages: ’Early indications are that the island’s average GLD will be significantly higher than 2017-18 and will exceed the English GLD for the same period.’

Last year was the first year that schools were asked to measure the GLD. Seventeen of the 32 primary schools were given a target of ’improving GLD’ this year.

Figures for 2016-17 were released earlier this year in response to another question from Mrs Caine, who was still children’s champion at the time. She demanded a full breakdown of percentages of children who had reached GLD.

DESC produced a full list of percentages, but the Manx Independent decided not to publish all of them, because it believed it was possible to identify children in some schools, especially where the reception class intake was so small that a percentage given could actually refer to just one or two pupils.

Children are defined as having reached GLD at the end of their reception year if they have achieved at least the expected level in the ’prime areas’ of learning.

There are 17 ’early learning goals’, which cover personal, social and emotional development, physical development, communication, as well as specific areas of maths and literacy.

The department is opposed to the use of league tables in the Isle of Man, but when faced with Tynwald questions, it has been obliged to release data that can then be used for precisely that purpose.

In response to Mrs Caine’s latest questions, Mr Cregeen describes league tables as ’a single, narrow measure of the performance of local schools’.

He adds: ’The department has undertaken considerable research into the value of these and has concluded that they are not helpful in raising standards or informing parents and can, potentially, narrow the curriculum for pupils, reduce motivation and discourage inclusion of lower attaining pupils.’

Last month, Mrs Caine successfully tabled a question for Health Minister David Ashford seeking a school-by-school breakdown of the number of children classed as overweight or obese.