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Just 142 schools to become academies
02 September 2010
Only 142 schools will convert to academy status over the coming year.
Figures published by the Department for Education show that 32 are opening this week, with the remaining schools due to convert over the next 12 months.
"This government believes that teachers and head teachers, not politicians and bureaucrats, should control schools and have more power over how they are run. That's why we are spreading academy freedoms," said Education Secretary Michael Gove MP.
Of the schools set to convert this year, seven are primaries. The government has said that special schools will have the opportunity to gain academy status from 2011.
Speaking earlier this week, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said that interest in becoming an academy "seems to be rather a damp squib".
"Our education system is too important to be subject to acting in haste, but repenting at leisure," said ATL General Secretary Dr Mary Bousted.