Although she stressed that this would not mean toddlers sitting exams or formal assessment, experts are concerned at increasing pressure on young children.
In a speech to the think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research, Ms Kelly said that the Government wanted to see the number of five-year-olds reaching 'a good level of development' increase from 48 per cent to 53 per cent by 2008.
Ms Kelly said, 'It may not sound much, put like that, but it means an extra 30,000 more children ready to learn at age five every year.'
In her speech, Ms Kelly said that, 'Early years childcare must be built around play. It must provide safe, nurturing environments which provide the opportunity for kids to have fun and develop so when they start primary school they are ready to learn and thrive. Reflecting this, I am announcing details of our national aspirations. By 2008 we want to have seen improvements across the country in children's readiness for school at age five.'
However, professor emeritus Tricia David said that setting targets would 'press downwards on younger children' and move away from child-initiated learning.
She said, 'Schools should be getting ready for the children, not the other way round. It's not as if they haven't learned anything before. Children are avid learners from birth.'
A spokesman from the DfES confirmed that this target referred to two of the six areas of learning in the Foundation Stage Profile: communication, language and literacy, which consists of four assessment scales, and personal, social and emotional development, which consists of three.
Children are considered to have achieved the target if they score six out of the possible nine points for each assessment scale.
The goals are not necessarily sequential. To achieve scale point four in 'language for communication and thinking', a child 'listens with enjoyment to stories, songs, rhymes and poems, sustains attentive listening and responds with relevant comments, questions or actions'.
The DfES spokesman said, 'We say that a total of six shows a child working securely within the early learning goals because that child must necessarily have achieved at least three of the five early learning goals in each scale.'