Ms Kelly said parents must ensure their children were well-behaved

In her first speech since taking up the post, Ruth Kelly highlighted the rights and responsibilities of parents.

She told educationists at the North of England conference, in Manchester, that parents had the right to a "top quality education" for their children.

But they also had a duty to make sure their children behaved well and to help them learn, she said.

Discipline

This annual conference has been used by previous education secretaries as a platform for major announcements.

But Ms Kelly did not launch any new policies or announce changes.

Instead, she talked about some of the key planks of the government's education policies, which she said were delivering results.

She did not reveal anything about the government's response to the Tomlinson proposals for an overhaul of the exam system for 14 to 19-year-olds, which is expected soon.

However, she did praise two elements of the proposals - the provision for better vocational learning and for stretching the brightest pupils.

Academies give parents the type of school they want to send their children to Ruth Kelly, Education Secretary

She said she had a great sense of honour and responsibility about her role.

"I come to this as a parent as well as a politician - feeling that every child is different, but of equal worth and believing also that education is the route to an opportunity society."

Parents and children should be at the heart of what the government did, she said.

"Parents helping to shape the education agenda to deliver real opportunity for their children. Parents with rights but responsibilities too."

She said the government was getting the basics right in England's schools, driving up standards through high quality teaching underpinned by rigorous inspection and accountability.

On the issue of school discipline - which the Conservatives have made central to their plans for schools - Ruth Kelly agreed that parents had a right to send their children to orderly schools.

But it was also their responsibility to ensure that they behaved well, respected their teachers and did not play truant.

'Greater choice'

Some news reports earlier this week had suggested she would also stress that popular schools could expand - which the Tories have made another important aspect of their proposals, to extend parental choice.

But her focus was on the drive for greater choice between increasingly diverse state schools, and giving pupils more choice within the curriculum, tailoring education to the needs of the individual.

She said the new academies were an example of how diversity in the system was improving education in some of the most deprived areas.

The academies are set up by charities or other groups with private as well as state money. They have greater freedoms than ordinary secondaries.

"Academies are all-ability schools but are free to tailor their offer to individuals and to respond to parental needs and aspirations," she said.

"Academies give parents the type of school that they want to send their children to."

Ms Kelly, a mother of four, said every parent knew all children were unique, with different talents.

So some needed more help - or more stretching - to maximise their potential.

But parental engagement in their learning could have a greater effect than such things as family background.

Political opponents

The Conservatives' education spokesman Tim Collins said the talk of choice was "half-hearted".

"Ruth Kelly speaks movingly of an outcome with only the sketchiest idea of how it is to be achieved," he said.

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman, Phil Willis, said: "All children deserve good quality local schools. That means small class sizes, teachers qualified in the subject being taught and modern facilities," he said.

"Ruth Kelly should be concentrating on achieving these basics of quality education instead of distracting parents with meaningless buzzwords."

Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said the education secretary was right to focus on the "crucially important" role parents could play.

But the idea of choice should not be reduced to a "superficial beauty contest" between schools.

Parents wanted a situation where all schools were of first choice," she said.

From the conference floor, John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, told Ms Kelly schools felt burdened by "initiative overload".