AS the first primary school league tables were published today, Education Secretary Gillian Shephard proclaimed that the results would "shine a bright light into every classroom in the land."

Nearer the truth is that they send in only a narrow beam, giving but a glimmer of schools' performances.

Nonetheless, though teachers may brand the tables as meaningless and unfair, they are not without value to both parents choosing their children's schools and to education in general.

For sketchy though the information is - it is only a snapshot of pupils' abilities in one-time tests in English, mathematics and science complicated by some newspapers which have produced their own misleading 'tables from tables' - it is nevertheless a measurement of standards.

And, as such, it concentrates the minds of those responsible far better than no measurement at all - a fact which even the most reluctant teachers cannot honestly dispute. It is the fundamental standards-improving essence of the tables - perhaps exampled today by the revelation of a 10 per cent improvement in pupils' results in English and maths on those of the year before - that makes them worthwhile, even as a crude stimulus.

More than that, they also give a useful guide to how the overall education system is performing.

As for their value to parents, they may only give rough clues to the comparative achievements of schools in their area, but will encourage them to seek further information from their children's schools about their levels of performance.

And in that regard, heads, teachers and governors have the opportunity to qualify the results with the extra information that is necessary for a truer, clearer picture of their schools' rating to be given.

It would, of course, be even better if the results also measured the other influences on performance - such as the the social, economic and cultural conditions in school intake areas.

It is not that Mrs Shephard's not-so-bright light should be extinguished, as the critics say, but that it should be given a more intense and wider beam.

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