Ministers have decided to drop from next week’s exam league tables information setting out the number of teaching hours in every secondary school, despite its original inclusion being at the express wish of John Major.

The Department for Education and Employment said the decision not to repeat the exercise was taken following feedback from parents that the information was already available.

It may also have been influenced by a report from the Office for Standards in Education which found only a weak association between academic results and the amount of taught time.

OFSTED found great variation, however, in the teaching hours offered by schools, ranging from 20 to 25.4 hours in primaries and from 22.5 to 26. 7 hours in secondaries.

This year’s tables will also for the first time give a fairer indication of the intake of schools. Figures for each school will include the proportion of fifth-formers with special needs, as well as the number of children with a statement setting out the extent of their disability.

Schools have complained the tables are misleading because parents are not informed about the range of pupils in schools. The Government is working on introducing measures that would produce a value-added league table showing the extent to which pupil achievement has been affected by the school, but such tables are unlikely before 1997.

The Government appears to have ruled out, at least for now, league tables of primary schools based on tests for 11-year-olds.