Academies are needed to raise standards, ministers say

Mary Bousted, leader of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, criticised England's state-funded academies for their reliance on private sponsors.

"Should companies like McDonalds and Wal-Mart be allowed to run schools?" she told the TUC's annual conference.

Ministers say allowing sponsors to help run schools will raise standards.

'False premise'

Dr Bousted told TUC delegates in Brighton: "Teachers and lecturers are not sales staff, and learning is not a commodity which should be bought and sold in the state sector.

"This government must end its false premise that private provision is always superior to public."

City academies, which replace schools in difficulty, typically cost about �25m.

Sponsors must provide up to �2m, giving them a say in the institution's running.

The government wants 200 academies open or under construction by 2010.

The stated aim is to raise standards in deprived areas.

'Unhealthy competition'

But the ATL says academies create unhealthy competition between schools, with head teachers discriminating against children from poorer backgrounds.

Dr Bousted said: "Markets may be good for many things, but not for our state education.

"The government's good work in education - and there has been a lot - is in danger of being undermined by its obsession with market forces.

"Extending marketisation any more will further fragment our education system and distort proper public accountability."

Education Secretary Alan Johnson has said academies have brought a "new ethos of success and created schools parents want to send their children to".