Blair hails city academies

Monday, 12 September 2005 12:00 AM

Tony Blair has today declared that the government's controversial city academies programme is thriving.

The prime minister said "parent power" was driving the scheme, which could see 200 of the academies in place or under construction by 2010, under government plans.

"It is not government edict that is determining the fate of city academies, but parent power," the prime minister said.

"Parents are choosing city academies, and that is good enough for me."

He said the proportion of pupils receiving the equivalent of five good GCSEs rose in academies by four times the national average over the last academic year.

Under the city academies scheme, failing urban schools are demolished and replaced with state funded, independently-run state-of-the-art schools.

The academies aim to improve standards in disadvantaged areas, but have proved controversial because they must raise up to £2 million from private sponsorship.

Sponsors are given a significant say in the curriculum and management of the academies and the National Union of Teachers has opposed the scheme.

Speaking on a tour of London academies, the prime minister explained that local authorities would become "commissioners of education" rather than direct
providers.

He also quoted figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers, published in June, which indicated nine out of ten parents of children attending academies were satisfied with their education.

But former education secretary Estelle Morris has criticised the city academies in the Guardian, claiming they may become a "distraction" from achieving high standards in schools.

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