School governors should act more like company directors to help raise standards in the classroom, ministers have said.

Under new plans to improve school governing bodies, in future, individuals should only be appointed if they have the right skills and experience needed for a particular school, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

It means that would-be governors will have to demonstrate that they have skills and experience in areas such as analysing data, dealing with budgets or performance management and employment issues, alongside a commitment to the school, good personal skills and decent levels of literacy and numeracy.

The DfE said it was consulting on amending current regulations to include an explicit requirement that appointed governors have the skills “to contribute to effective governance and the success of the school”.

Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governors Association said: “Organisations with good governance do not fail, and we need to ensure that schools have the best governance possible.

“This starts with the recruitment of a good group of diverse people with the time, the necessary range of skills and experience and the commitment to improving the education of children and young people.”