Worst 200 schools will be forced to become ‘academies’ - Gove

Watchdog Ofsted has published its inspection reports for the autumn and spring terms of 2010-11 and revealed that across the country more than a third of schools were found only to be satisfactory, while six per cent were declared inadequate.

In Yorkshire 40 per cent were satisfactory, and six per cent were inadequate. The research also revealed that 17 per cent of the region’s schools were rated inadequate in terms of attainment.

Education Secretary Michael Gove will later deliver a speech warning that Britain risks falling behind Asian economies unless it accelerates the pace of educational improvement.

Mr Gove will say that the worst 200 primary schools in England will be forced to turn into academies, and that a system in which so many children leave primary school without a good grasp of English and maths “should no longer be tolerated”.

Around 1,400 primary schools in England currently have less than 60% of their pupils reaching a basic level in English and Maths at age 11, and children making below average progress between the ages of seven and 11.

These are the basic floor standards that primaries are expected to achieve.

Of these 1,400 primaries, about 500 have been below the floor for two or three of the last four years.

And a further 200 have been below the threshold for the last five years, with 120 of them below the target for more than a decade.

It is these that are expected to be turned into academies - semi-independent state schools that receive their funding directly and have more powers over areas like the curriculum and staff pay and conditions.

In a speech to the National College for School Leadership in Birmingham today, Mr Gove will warn that the education debate in this country has not “confronted reality”.

He will say: “Education systems across the world are improving faster than England. We have to set our sights higher.

“We should no longer tolerate a system in which so many pupils leave primary school without a good grasp of English and maths and leave secondary school without five good GCSEs.

“We want all parents to have a choice of good local schools. Evidence shows that the academy programme has had a good effect on school standards.

“Heads and teachers should run schools and they should be more accountable to parents instead of politicians.

“We must go faster and further in using the programme to deal with underperforming schools.”

Mr Gove will also set secondary schools in England a new target of securing five good GCSE passes for at least half of their pupils.

The new target of 50% of pupils attaining five A*-C grade GCSEs, including English and maths, would require the worst-performing secondaries to raise their results to the level currently achieved by the average school.

Those which fail could face takeover by a successful neighbouring academy school.

In the most recent round of exams, some 870 out of the 3,000 secondaries in England fell short of the benchmark.

Mr Gove has already raised the target for five good GCSEs from 30% to 35% of pupils.

He is expected to propose raising the threshold to 40% in the 2012-13 academic year and 50% by 2015.