Michael Gove Sees 1,000 Converted Academies Open In Time For Conservative Party Conference Keynote Speech

Gove's Milestone: 1,000 Converted Academies Now Open

As the 1,000th converted academy opens, more than one million children - or one in three secondary pupils - in England are reported to attend academies, according to education secretary Michael Gove.

Tuesday marks the opening of the 1,000th school which has decided to convert to academy status, giving them freedom from local authorities but with government funding.

Smarden Primary School, Ashford is being opened by schools minister Lord Hill and joins the more than 1,300 academies already open across England since the Academies Act in July 2010.

The Department for Education (DfE) estimates more than 1,500 schools have applied with the total of successfully converted schools to reach 1,031 by the end of the week. According to the DfE, more than 40 per cent of all secondary schools in England are now open as, or in the process of opening as, academies - and more than 1,100 of those opening while the coalition government was in power.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Tuesday, Gove is expected to highlight the achievements of the government in educating 1.2 million children in the academy system.

"They benefit from longer school days, smaller class sizes, better paid teachers, improved discipline and higher standards all round", he will say.

"That is a Conservative achievement of which we can all be proud."

Despite the impressive figures, the academy programme has attracted harsh criticism from many and has been plagued by scandal.

In August, the Huffington Post UK exposed secret emails which had been sent from Whitehall to a school using a personal email account. The email, from an official, attempted to persuade the school to convert to academy status.

A later freedom of information request revealed the official was not the only one indulging in the unprofessional act. Michael Gove and his advisers are now being investigated by the Information Commissioner.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the teaching union NASUWT has hit out at the figures, calling them "meaningless".

"Gove has reeled off statistics about the number of academy schools and the number of pupils in them. So what?

“There is not one single scrap of evidence that such structural change raises standards and, therefore, in that context the figures are meaningless."

“Today’s statement, with its wild claims of better paid teachers, smaller class sizes and higher standards is nothing more than blatant propaganda", he added.

“When will this Coalition start telling the public the truth?”

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