The education secretary has condemned Prince Charles as "very old fashioned" following his comments that schools are encouraging pupils to be too ambitious.

Charles Clarke was responding to a memo that emerged during an employment tribunal involving the Prince of Wales' former member of staff Elaine Day.

In it the Prince blamed schools for making children think they can achieve anything.

Heir to the throne Charles wrote: "What is wrong with everybody nowadays?

"What is it that makes everyone seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?"

He went on to blame the "learning culture in schools" and a "child-centred system which admits no failure" and told people they can achieve greatness without "putting in the necessary effort or having the natural abilities".

Clarke hit back, telling the BBC: "We can't all be born to be King, but we can aspire to do the best we possibly can."

Damaging

He added it was very damaging when children were dismissed as non-achievers.

"I am not going to comment on a private memorandum from the Prince but on the issue I am against that approach to things," Clarke told the Today programme.

"I do believe it's very, very important that every child has the ambition for themselves to achieve whatever they can do for themselves - that everyone has a field marshal's baton in their knapsack."

"To be quite frank I think he is very old-fashioned and out of time and he doesn't understand what is going on in the British education system at the moment," he added.

Clarke also called on the Prince to think again before speaking out on contentious issues.

"I think he should think carefully before intervening in that debate," the senior Cabinet minister said.

Respect

Downing Street said the contrasting views should not be seen as a spat.

"The prime minister has great respect for the Prince of Wales, he also believes Charles Clarke is a first class secretary of state," a Number 10 spokeswoman said.

"The education secretary values his relationship with Prince Charles and the discussions they have," she added.

"People can have a different view, that doesn't mean they are showing disrespect."

But shadow education secretary Tim Collins said the Prince's comments deserved consideration.

"It is a caricature of the Prince to call him what Charles Clarke called him," the Conservative spokesman said.

"My understanding was that this was a private memo but I imagine that what he was driving at was that there is a difference between encouraging children to do as well as they can which is highly desirable and on the other hand saying that every child is expected to get an "A" grade, that every child will get into university and that every child should pursue the same career that is just not realistic.

"It would be cheating a lot of young people to lead them up that path."