Michael Gove defends academies push

Education secretary says scheme for schools to opt out of local authority control was debated during election campaign

The education secretary, Michael Gove, today defended himself against accusations that MPs had not had enough time to debate flagship legislation to transform England's schools, arguing that the plans were well-aired during the election.

MPs will this afternoon get their first chance to debate a bill that allows every school in England to become an academy ? with schools rated outstanding by Ofsted being fast-tracked, so that hundreds could convert by the start of the new school year. To enable this to happen, the government has compressed the committee stage in which bills are usually studied in detail by a panel of MPs. Instead, this stage will take place in two days on the floor of the House of Commons.

Gove said the bill was a centrepiece of the election campaign and schools needed to be rescued from decline. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Rushed laws can be bad laws. But it is also the case that if you've had extensive debate during the course of an election campaign, if you have, as we have, hundreds of schools who are anxious to take advantage of these proposals, then it is understandable that you want to honour the manifesto commitment."

Debate on the bill will come as teachers and parents arrive at Parliament to protest against the scrapping of a £55bn school building programme. Construction workers, pupils, school governors, local authority officials and MPs will also take part in the rally organised by the teaching union NASUWT.

The bill restores freedoms removed from academies under Gordon Brown, including the right to abandon the national curriculum - though a new curriculum must be "balanced and broadly based'. There are currently 203 academies, most of which replaced weak or underperforming schools. The government said last month that 1,700 schools had expressed an interest in becoming an academy, and Gove hopes a large number of these will be converted by September. For this to happen, the bill needs to be passed before Parliament rises for the summer recess next week.

Gove said: "Instead of this country declining relative to other nations, we can once again become a world leader in education."

The education secretary said his reform would release schools from local authority control and give teachers more control of what happened in the classroom.

"It's because there have been so many schools within the local authority family that we have seen standards decline, because there were local authorities not doing a good job in generating school improvement that we had to move foward."

But the Tory chairman of the education select committee has expressed concern that only a "pretty overwhelming argument" could justify the risk of cutting short debating time.

Graham Stuart said: "To make changes to public services of this importance, ideally you would have longer to reflect on it and to suggest changes and improvements and make sure there aren't any problems which haven't been considered."

The Tory MP said that if few schools converted, it would be hard to justify the legislative rush. "But if, on the other hand, large numbers move then inevitably people will ask whether sufficient consideration has been given to the system-wide impact of this on things like support for children with special needs."

The bill was amended when it went through the Lords, with a clause added requiring governing bodies to consult parents, teachers and the local community before opting out of council control. Academies have also been opened to scrutiny under freedom of information laws.

Speaking ahead of today's rally protesting at the cancellation of much of Labour's new school building programme, NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: "Run-down, dilapidated buildings are not being replaced while schools in good repair are getting brand new buildings just because they are becoming academies. There is a direct link between these decisions and the academies bill being rushed through Parliament using procedures normally reserved for anti-terrorist laws."

Mr Gove was previously forced to apologise to the Commons and council leaders after it emerged that an initial list of 715 Building Schools for the Future projects was riddled with errors. Many schools that were thought to have been spared later learned their rebuilding projects would be cancelled.

Shadow education secretary Ed Balls, who is to speak at the rally, said: "The academies bill will allow [Gove] to spend the money he has snatched away from hundreds of schools across the country to build his 'free market' schools.

"That reform was tried and failed in Sweden, but it saw standards fall and inequality rise as only the better off took advantage.

"It is deeply unfair that Michael Gove wants to put money into this failed idea at the expense of schools in hundreds of communities that are crying out for 21st century facilities and which now won't get them."

A Department for Education spokesman said MPs would be given a chance to debate and scrutinise the bill in two days of committee stage hearings on the floor of the House of Commons.