IT IS of great concern, not only for every parent but also for every business leader, that education standards in Wales are still lagging behind those in England.

What is equally worrying is that if the focus is on the numbers of students gaining top GCSE grades, the gap between England and Wales has widened over the past five years.

There have been improvements here but it is obvious Wales is still not doing as well as it should.

And in the first annual report by the new head of schools inspection body Estyn, Dr Bill Maxwell the reason is clear.

There are too many inconsistencies.

Some local education authorities, Newport being among them, are punching above their weight and gaining successes beyond expectations.

Others are not.

Newport was singled out for praise and with the city boasting four schools out of the 18 across the whole of Wales which gained top grades across all seven areas of inspections over the past year the city can be proud of its achievements.

Likewise several other of our county boroughs do seem to be performing well when compared to others across Wales.

On paper Monmouthshire does not seem to be performing as well as would be expected but this could be due to inconsistencies within the borough itself.

The contradictions across Wales should be the major cause for concern.

And this is where the Assembly has to step in.

Assembly ministers need to see the bigger picture and find out why the successes in some areas are not mirrored in others.

The gap between the schools doing well and those which are clearly in trouble is widening with one in 10 schools not doing well enough.

Education minister Jane Hutt today announced LEAs will be at the forefront of driving up standards in schools.

The problems will start however if it is the LEAs themselves which, in some cases are not up to the job.