A COUPLE of weeks after taking a critical number of county teachers to task during the flooding crisis, it's important to pour some words of praise in the profession's direction.

The picture painted by Worcestershire's Secondary Performance Table results might seem stark to some, and disappointing as a consequence.

Though the county's ranking against other local education authorities has slipped in the past year, the outlook is still something to be pleased with, reassured by and encouraged over.

It's important to set the figures - an average A-level score at 17.1 per cent this year, compared with 18.2 last; a 0.3 per cent rise in students achieving five or more A* to C grades at GCSE from 1999 - against a particular background.

Worcestershire is 146th in the national education funding league, but 63rd in the table of LEAs. In other words, there are 83 counties doing worse, and only 62 doing better.

Among the effort to hit the three-year Educational Performance Plan's 52.5 per cent GCSE mark by 2002 - four out of five county schools already meet that target, or are nearing it - come places like Malvern's The Chase, and Nunnery Wood High and The Elgar High in Worcester.

The first two are on the national list of most improved GCSE results, while the latter has cut truancy by a quarter. That should not be sneezed at.

As many Evening News readers will know and appreciate, The Elgar has worked hard to lift itself from a very low achievement base.

Changing the culture among students there, a vital ingredient in scoring even higher GCSE grades, is going to take some time yet. This isn't the occasion to be critical.

The real battle, though - as county social services and fire brigade managers know all too well - is to lift the county's level of funding.

There's no reason why the good folk of Worcestershire should be valued less per head of population than places like Warwickshire or Berkshire. Until that's addressed, we must give our schools all the support they need.