MERSEYSIDE education officials last night attacked tougher government GCSE league table targets as “mission impossible”.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is today expected to set a new minimum target secondary schools must ensure their pupils meet in GCSE exams, or risk being labelled as failing in official league tables.

The changes, due to come into force in 2015, would set a new target of schools securing five A*-C grade GCSEs, including English and maths for at least half of their pupils – currently the target is 35%.

Based on the latest league tables, more than 30 extra Merseyside schools would now find themselves classed as failing as they come under the 50% target.

Mr Gove is due to warn that Britain risks falling behind Asian economies unless it accelerates the pace of educational improvement. The new target of 50% of pupils would require the worst-performing secondaries to raise their results to the level currently achieved by the average school and those which fail could face takeover by a successful neighbouring academy school.