More than four in 10 secondary school pupils are failing to make enough progress in maths, official figures showed.

Government statistics show that some 327,000 teenagers (41.3 per cent) did not make the expected progress between leaving primary school and taking their GCSEs.

And a third (34.5 per cent), around 192,000 students, are failing to make enough progress in English.

The statistics, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families are collated by comparing test and exam results of pupils at the ages of 11 and 16.

At the age of 11, pupils are expected to reach Level 4. This means, for example, that they are able to write complex sentences and have good spelling in English, and that they can use basic percentages and fractions in maths.

A child who reaches Level 4 at the age of 11 is expected to get Cs in their GCSEs.

The statistics for 2009 show that 65.5 per cent of pupils achieved this target in English up from 64.2 per centin 2008.

In maths, 58.7 per cent of teenagers achieved this target, up from 57 per cent in 2008.

Girls performed better than boys in both subjects, but the gap was more pronounced in English.

Some 70.7 per cent of girls made the expected progress in English, compared to 60.4 per cent of boys, and in maths, 59.5 per cent of girls achieved the expected progress, compared to 58 per cent of boys.