Permanent Secretary Sir David Normington said that, as an employer, he could understand businesses' complaints about school leavers.

Standards had improved but were "not good enough yet", he told the Commons education select committee.

But sometimes missed government targets had been "too tough", he said.

The Confederation of British Industry has complained that a third of employers have to give recruits extra tuition in English and maths.

Improvements

Sir David told MPs: "As an employer myself I sometimes see that the standards of English and maths are not good enough amongst those coming into my employment.

"Things have improved but I do not yet think it is good enough."

School performance at both primary and secondary level had improved "dramatically" in the past eight years.

Literacy levels among 11-year-olds were six percentage points below the government's target - but 17 points higher than they had been when Labour came to power in 1997, he said.

The target of an improvement in students' GCSE-level performance of two percentage points each year was greater than had ever been achieved.

"We have increased year on year but we haven't had that 2% increase. It was a tough target, probably too tough actually," he said.

The media's focus on the missed targets was "very frustrating" to him and his colleagues, who were very proud of what they had achieved, he said.

The shadow education secretary, David Cameron, said: "This is the biggest admission yet that the government is still not getting the basics right."

Tony Blair had promised education would be his top priority, but his commitments were "starting to sound increasingly hollow", he said.