Too many secondary schools in England are delivering quality standards of education, according to the head of Ofsted.

Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said that many institutions are failing to make progress, with a third deemed to be not good enough.

In his annual report, he outlined, by way of example, that Ofsted's inspections have found that there are 170,000 students in "inadequate secondary schools". This is 70,000 more than two years ago.

Primary schools however, Sir Michael outlined, are proving otherwise, with many of them flourishing. According to Ofsted, this is down to headteachers focusing on both the quality of teaching and behaviour management.

“Most people recognise that school autonomy is a good thing," the expert stated. "Almost all schools, regardless of status, now enjoy far more freedom than they did in the past.

"Where schools are failing, it is not because they are local authority schools or academies, or because they are part of a multi-academy trust or because they stand alone. They are failing because they haven’t got the essentials right."

This, he said, is demonstrated by poor governance and insight, weak leadership, inadequate approaches to misbehaviour and "indifferent" teacher.

"If our education system is to continue to progress we need to concentrate on the basics of why schools and colleges fail and why they succeed," Sir Michael added.

In return, David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, has called for an independent review of Ofsted.

"Ofsted is intended to be a key part of the improvement of schools, and in the case of academy schools are the only people councils can call on to intervene when there are signs that standards are slipping," he said.

"As well as asking questions of schools, Ofsted has questions to answer about whether its regime is bringing about the improvement we need to see."