More than 60% of England's secondary schools are already specialist

He revealed that an extra 268 schools have been granted specialist status, bringing the total in England to 1,954.

The government's target is to have 2,000 specialist schools by 2006.

The status brings with it extra funding and schools can specialise in a variety of subjects, including technology, arts and sport.

The government says the specialist schools programme is a key part of the effort to drive up standards and that children at specialist schools are doing better than those in other secondary schools.

Its figures show that in 2003, 56.7 per cent of pupils in specialist schools achieved five good grades at GCSE compared to 49.2 per cent in non-specialists - a difference of 7.5 percentage points.

Five-year plan

Charles Clarke said: "Specialists schools are a mass movement to raise standards in every school delivering better results for every single pupil.

"Over 60% of secondary schools are now specialist in which over 2 million pupils are doing better than pupils in non-specialist schools. It was said that specialist schools would not raise standards, they do."

He said the government wanted all schools eventually to become specialists.

That message has won friends among representatives of head teachers, who had feared that the extra resources given to specialist schools would lead to a two-tier system, with non-specialist schools suffering.

The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association (SHA), John Dunford, said: "I am pleased that ministers have responded to SHA's call to accelerate the programme of specialist schools.

"Now that the government has decided that all secondary schools can become specialist, the sooner this happens the better.

"Charles Clarke's more inclusive policy on specialist schools is in contrast to the exclusive model of his predecessors."

While the specialist schools programme is proving popular, head teachers and teachers' unions are less impressed with the drive for more academies.

The government will announce its five year plan for education next week and the push for more academies is expected to feature prominently.

On Thursday, Charles Clarke presented the five-year plan to the Cabinet.

City academies are state funded and free to students - but have more independence than mainstream secondary schools and are free to set their own admissions' criteria.

Head teachers and the National Union of Teachers say their expansion in their present form could end up pitting one school against another.