Chris Woodhead: "I don't think this is negative at all"

He was speaking after the number of 11-year-olds in England meeting national standards in maths fell compared with last year.

This year's National Curriculum test results for children in the final year of primary education also show the smallest improvement in English in recent years.

"I think there is every reason to believe that the targets will be met," Mr Woodhead told BBC News.

Chris Woodhead: "The target is attainable"

"The training is being provided, there is a commitment and goodwill from teachers, so there's every reason for optimism."

The government has set targets for improvement in the two subjects for 11-year-olds - by 2002, it wants to see 80% of pupils reaching the standards expected for their age in English, and 75% in maths.

But in 1998, the proportion of pupils reaching this target in English was 65% (up two percentage points on 1997) while for maths it was 59% (down three).

Mr Woodhead backed the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, who said the fall in maths was due to new mental arithmetic tests and more rigorous assessment methods.

BBC Education Correspondent Sue Littlemore: Government has a tough job to reach targets

Mr Blunkett has previously said he will resign if the targets for 2002 are not met.

However, the education secretary insisted that the introduction of new literacy and numeracy strategies over the next two years - including a daily literacy and numeracy hour - meant that the government was on course to meet its goals.

Achievement in science tests for 11-year-olds remained static at 69%.

At the age of 14, the proportion achieving expected levels in English rose from 57% to 65%, but fell in maths from 60% to 59% and in science from 60% to 56%.

David Blunkett: "The results in maths demonstrate the importance of our new numeracy strategy"

At age seven, 84% achieved the expected level in maths - the same as last year - while reading scores were the same and writing and spelling slightly improved.

Separate tests in the small number of schools which piloted both the numeracy and literacy strategies appear to show that children there made significant progress, improving English results by 10% and maths results by 7%.

But the Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts, described this year's test results as "worrying news".

"The government is nowhere near its targets for English and maths," he said.

David Willetts: "Children have suffered"

"David Blunkett has been deluging teachers with so many directives and initiatives that he has distracted them from the essential task of delivering high-quality education in the classroom - and children have suffered."

Teachers needed to be "given a break" from new government initiatives, said Mr Willetts.

By contrast, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesman, Don Foster, said the government would clearly hit its targets for 2002.

Nigel de Gruchy: "Overworked teachers cannot keep raising results"

"The chance of the Secretary of State having to resign looks extremely unlikely," he said.

"But if you can have a decline like this and still remain on target, it raises real questions about how tough the targets were in the first place."

The lack of success in raising results this year reflected the overworking of teachers, argued the General Secretary of the National Union of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Nigel de Gruchy.

Nigel de Gruchy: "Mountains of bureaucratic overwork"

The "mountain of bureaucratic overwork" and "permanent revolution" of changes in education were like "China under Mao Tse Tung", he said.