Academy scheme to expand

Up to 70 schools on the Government's underperforming "hit list" will be closed within two years and turned into privately-sponsored academies, The Independent has learnt. Education ministers have been given the green light by the Treasury to expand the controversial programme and create 70 additional academies from schools on the list by 2010.

A further 70 schools on the original list of 638 where 30 per cent of pupils have failed to obtain five A* to C grade passes at GCSE, including maths and English, will become "trust" schools. That means they will be put into partnership with nearby successful schools and will, in effect, be run by them.

The commitment to opening an extra 70 academies – which would bring the total number of the privately-sponsored schools to 310 by 2010 – is the first concrete sign of the Government's commitment to the academies programme in the wake of the departure of its architect, former schools minister Andrew Adonis, from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

Many in the education world had believed his departure signalled a downgrading of the scheme, in which failing inner-city schools are replaced by new independently-run, state-financed institutions, sponsored by a mixture of organisations including faith groups, businesses, maverick philanthropists, universities and private schools.

The scheme's supporters, who believe the format gives schools more freedom from bureaucratic control, have been heartened by the decision to assign the academies brief to Schools minister Jim Knight – Lord Adonis's senior before this month's reshuffle.

Ministers are still engaged in talks with local authorities and underperforming schools over the future of those on the "hit list", or "National Challenge" as the Government calls it. What is clear, though, is that the majority will pass the 30 per cent target set by Gordon Brown by 2010. After this year's GCSEs, the number of those deemed not good enough has already fallen to 475. "We expect the vast majority of schools in the National Challenge to get above the floor without radical solutions," said a DCSF spokesman.

Mr Knight told The Independent that he saw "no reason" why the number should not fall by a similar amount again next year – and again in 2010.

The Government is appointing specialist advisers to work with each school in improving maths and English results.

The decision to turn up to 70 on the list into academies will infuriate teachers, who argue that the programme is not proven – and removes schools from democratic control. Headteachers' leaders argued that many schools on the list had drawn glowing praise from Ofsted, the standards watchdog, for their efforts to improve the performance of the pupils they had taken in at 11. Some were high on the Government's "value added" league table – which shows how far they have exceeded expectations of pupils upon their arrival at school.

Meanwhile, new figures from the Conservatives reveal that fewer than 10 per cent of pupils get five top grade A* to C grades at GCSE including maths and English in several areas of the country – compared with 100 per cent in the top performing area, Richmond-upon-Thames. The worst council ward was in Bradford, where 3.3 per cent of pupils cleared the hurdle. Michael Gove, the shadow Education Secretary, said: "The scale of inequality is shocking. It is a scandal that there are pockets of the country where just a tiny minority achieve the basic level of qualifications."