Prime Minister Tony Blair told an Oxford audience that he wanted to create a nation hooked on learning.

Education was the key to competitiveness and productivity, he said at the Sheldonian Theatre in Broad Street.

Giving the annual Oxford University Romanes lecture, he spoke about the "Learning Habit" and set out how he wants to reform British education in the next century.

He said education was critical to the nation's economic and social prosperity. "It means shifting from a low-skill average to a high-skill average - or as I put it, excellence for the many not the few."

In the past, Britain had a few high-quality schools and universities for the few, said Mr Blair. For most people, standards in achievement were poor and there was widespread indifference.

He said Labour had inherited a situation where average pupils' performance was far too low. He wanted to change that by unlocking hidden potential in youngsters.

"How many children sit in school today with low ambitions but with huge reserves of talent that have never been unearthed? Probably hundreds of thousands," he said. His answer for raising achievement is to create an education system "combining diversity with excellence".

He wants to see schools with distinct centres of excellence, providing radically different opportunities for pupils with different needs.

He said he was passionate about education because, without the good education he had had, he would have not had a hope of becoming Prime Minister or "doing very much with his life".

Story date: Friday 03 December

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