Yesterday Michael Gove gave an impassioned defence of his programme to convert more schools into academies. This has been the biggest shake-up of the English school system for decades - with 1,529 secondary schools now being free from local government control and many primary schools following suit.
The idea behind the academies programme is that giving schools more freedom over their day-to-day management will raise standards. Academy schools have more autonomy over how they spend their budgets, employ their staff and choose their curriculum, and local authorities have less power as a result. In his speech, Gove quoted evidence from international studies such as PISA, which show that when countries give their schools more autonomy they tend to perform better.
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