I totally agree that many failures have resulted in children not knowing literacy.
My own daughter is one of those children who left school without doing her SATS sadly and maths just did not work for her at school. English was a little better. Although she has a learning disability I expected her at least to come out of school knowing her tables and knowing how to do a very basic thing such as knowing where to put a capital letter.

I don't blame the teachers but the system. It must be hard enough to teach and teachers should be left to do so.

There are many young adults like my daughter. She gave up after a further three years doing literacy and not gaining any qualifications.

You may argue that it is her mind but I know different. When I got her a private maths tutor she so started to pick up and was reaching advanced levels. Sadly that was short lived as we could not afford the classes. Only to return to College and back to simple key skills. For some reasons these did not work for her at all.

I attended key skills and there was little time for the teacher to actually teach. The main aim was to get through the curriculum.

I think there is too many bits of paper now. Go back to blackboard teaching and let teachers teach.