Dozens of under-performing Bradford primary schools could be forced to become academies under new plans announced by the Government.

Education Secretary Michael Gove says the weakest 200 primaries in the country will become academies in 2012/13.

There are about 1,400 primaries below the Department for Education’s ‘minimum floor standard’, which is where fewer than 60 per cent of pupils reach a basic level in English and maths at the age of 11 and where children make below-average progress between seven and 11.

The figures are based on key stage two Sats which many primaries in Bradford boycotted in 2010 but based on the previous year’s data, 37 Bradford primaries could be considered ‘weak’.

Speaking to head teachers at the National College for School Leadership, Mr Gove also said at least half of pupils should get five A* to C GCSE grades, including in English and maths by 2015, in all secondary schools.

After last summer’s exams, 15 Bradford secondaries fell short of 50 per cent. The ‘floor’ target then was 35 per cent and it will be lifted in stages, rising to 40 per cent in 2012.

Mr Gove said: “We should no longer tolerate a system in which so many pupils leave primary school without a good grasp of English and maths, and leave secondary school without five good GCSEs. We want all parents to have a choice of good local schools.

“Evidence shows that the academy programme has had a good effect on school standards. Heads and teachers should run schools and they should be more accountable to parents instead of politicians. We must go faster and further in using the programme to deal with under-performing schools.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, Bradford Council’s executive member for children’s services, said he was worried by Mr Gove’s comments. He said: “Good leadership is found around all different categories of schools. No one disputes we need to be raising the levels of standards but it’s against all research that a single approach is going to deliver the best results.

“No-one has told me how by just becoming an academy it transforms the context these schools are operating in.”

Pam Milner, deputy secretary of the Bradford branch of the NASUWT, said: “Mr Gove needs to go back to the drawing board and he needs to do some serious research into the conditions in which teachers have to teach and children have to learn and look at the factors in places like Bradford that have a direct impact on children’s abilities. I challenge him to come to inner-city Bradford to see the reality.”

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