Festival guest director Michael Rosen has launched a stinging attack on the government’s education policy, stating that the current system will “breed failure”.

The 67-year-old children’s author, speaking at the Festival’s Education Debate, added that teachers – not politicians – need to be at the centre of decision making.

The former Children’s Laureate said: “If you have a system that at the heart of it is testing and competition then you will create failure.

“You will create children who think they might be failures, who sit there worrying they might be failures and who are anxious. This is the least proficuous circumstance for learning.”

Joining Mr Rosen on stage at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange were Melissa Benn, an education commentator and the daughter of former MP Tony Benn, former Conservative education secretary Lord Baker of Dorking and former schools minister Nick Gibb. The debate was chaired by Guardian columnist and festival chair Polly Toynbee.

Mr Rosen added: “Every single person in this room, think of the last thing you learnt. Were you anxious about it and worried about it and couldn’t play with it?

“Think of the computer, the MFI thing you couldn’t do or your partner saying you’re rubbish and no good.

“We need to turn the thing round and the only way you can do that is to put teachers in control of the study of learning.

That is crucial. It means you have to rethink the whole notion of how we run education. It can’t be run by a dictat from the core – someone who thinks he knows everything.”

He added that the flawed government policy meant teachers were “teaching to test” and that schools were reluctant to share expertise due to the competition between them.

Lord Baker, addressing the packed audience, said that GCSEs would eventually disappear and that more technical schools were needed to help with teenage unemployment.

Mr Gibb added that the government was closing the gap in educational attainment.

Melissa Benn, meanwhile, argued that free schools are “inefficient and unfair” and that no-one in school communities wants academies.

The 90 minute debate is available to watch again on the Brighton Festival website.