TODAY education secretary Ruth Kelly faces her biggest test since she entered the cut-throat world of politics.

The Bolton West MP is under extreme pressure to explain how registered sex offenders have been found to be working in schools.

She has been accused of a serious lapse in judgement and been asked by rival parties to consider her position.

This is the most serious battle of a political career that has seen her criticised for her link to the Catholic conservative movement Opus Dei and lambasted for failing to win support for proposed school reforms.

We believe that she must today provide answers as to how this latest situation has arisen and assurances that positive action will be taken and quickly.

She has already admitted that mistakes have been made and said that her own department is to blame, and we believe that as a forthright and honest member of Parliament Ms Kelly will today take full responsibility and announce a plan for the drawing up of a single list of people who have committed offences that make them unfit to work with children.

Mother-of-four Ms Kelly is undoubtedly a hard-working government member who is not afraid to face her critics, but once the calling for resignation from other political parties and the media grows loud survival becomes increasingly difficult.

The situation involving sex offenders said to be less than 10 working in schools is a messy one, and one that is not entirely Ms Kelly's fault. Her position as education secretary is one that compels her to sort it out and today she must convince the country that she is capable of doing this.