12 September 2005
City academies are helping the education system move into the ‘post-comprehensive’ era, the Prime Minister has said.
On a visit to the City of London Academy Mr Blair said the basic principles of equality of opportunity had been ‘opened up to new and different ways of education, built round the needs of the individual child.’
The government wants 200 city academies in place or under construction by 2010, with 40 by next September. The PM said the plan was on schedule to meet those targets.
Academies are usually located in areas of deprivation and take some funding from private sponsorship.
To become an academy, a school must raise up to £2m from private sponsors. In return, the government pays the rest of the start-up costs, typically £25m.
Praising the academy staff on the first day of the new school year Mr Blair said:
"No wonder word is spreading in local communities. It is not government edict that is determining the fate of city academies, but parent power - parents are choosing city academies, and that’s good enough for me.
"The improvements and results that you have managed to achieve - often struggling against apparently impossible odds - are testimony to what can be achieved."
A recent survey found that 87 per cent of parents with children at academies were satisfied with the quality of education, while 80 per cent of teachers believed all their pupils could achieve good results there.
delicious
digg
facebook
