by Lamiat Sabin

PARENTS and teachers blew apart Tory claims yesterday that “failing” schools would improve if forced to become academies.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan published the Education and Adoption Bill yesterday that could see over 1,000 schools turned into academies if Ofsted inspectors mark them poorly.

Academies are outside of local authority control, not tied to the national curriculum and can employ unqualified teachers. Schools thought to be “coasting” along would also be threatened.

The Anti-Academies Alliance (AAA), made up of parents, teachers, MPs and trade unions, blasted the plans yesterday.

It said: “Parents object to academies because they know there’s a lack of local accountability and that academies don’t have to employ qualified teachers.”

Academy chain Inspiration Trust — a private charity running a chain of state schools — has advertised for unqualified teachers with a paltry £16,300 salary, while north London’s Stem 6 tried to force its teachers onto zero-hours contracts, AAA said.

More than 400,000 children are now being taught by teachers without full training.

The campaign pointed out that despite claims of raising standards, 46 per cent of academies have been branded “requires improvement” or “inadequate.”

Parents from Downhills School in Tottenham, which Ofsted had said was showing a “clear trend of improvement” before it was forced to become an academy, added: “We recognised the academies and free schools programme is a smokescreen to hand control of public assets to corporate interests and to the government’s wealthy cronies.”

And National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said: “The public will see these proposals for what they really are — a crude attack on state comprehensive education and a further step towards full school privatisation.”

Education Secretary Ms Morgan defended the plans, saying they would “sweep away bureaucratic and legal loopholes” and allow failing schools — mainly in impoverished areas — to be improved faster.

However, Ms Blower said that “a change in structure is not axiomatically the path to school improvement and it is irresponsible to tell parents otherwise.”