Tesco has openly criticised the education system for the second time within six months, disapproving the quality of skills students learnt during their academic studies.

Last October, the grocer's chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, said: "Despite all the money that has been spent, standards are still woefully low in too many schools. Employers like us ... are often left to pick up the pieces."

Neville-Rolfe, the retailer's director of corporate and legal affairs says most of the problem is that teachers have too much paper work to complete, and too little headspace to remember what is important about their role as a teacher and what it is they should be doing, uttering;

"Our education system seems very complicated to me. I would guess that the paperwork mountain with which teachers have to struggle is even worse than the red tape we face in business. There are lots of agencies and bodies, often issuing reams of instructions to teachers. It isn't surprising if teachers sometimes get distracted from the most important task at hand: teaching children well in the classroom."

She compares Tesco store managers to head teachers, and senior staff members to school governors.

She believes that Heads should also be given more power and rewarded better. "Why don't we give heads and teachers more freedom to take responsibility and use their professional judgment?"

She also believes that school-leavers have basic problems with literacy and numeracy and that many also have "what you might call an attitude problem". She adds: "They don't seem to understand the importance of a tidy appearance and have problems with timekeeping ... Some seem to think that the world owes them a living."

 
Rolfe also says: "There are growing questions over various aspects of our exam system." She adds that grade inflation makes it difficult to identify the highest achievers: "There seems to be a fair amount of evidence now that [exams] are getting easier and failing to stretch people. The proportion of firsts and 2:1s has risen enormously so it's much rarer to get a 2:2 than a first. People who are clever today are achieving the grades of the very clever a couple of decades ago."

She believes that the supermarket industry should come up with a "manifesto for education and skills which we can give to whoever wins", as the education system "is set to be an important point of debate at the general election"

She also points to wider problems among the young and their attitudes to work, authority and discipline: "The truth is that a certain humility and an ability to work hard are important for success ... More broadly, a society where people don't feel the need to work to gain material possessions will not be a stable or successful society."