London schools on secret hit-list

The Government has drawn up a secret hitlist of 50 poor-performing secondary schools which will bear the brunt of a clampdown on educational failure in London.

Headteachers and a substantial number of other staff will be replaced as ministers lose patience with their record of under-achievement.

The new drive to root out educational under-performance in the capital will concentrate on just six boroughs - Islington, Hackney, Haringey, Southwark, Lewisham and Lambeth.

Ministers have identified the poor standard of secondary education in the capital as one of the biggest blights on the Government's education record.

Too many parents, they believe, have lost confidence in local comprehensives and are driven to seek out better schools miles from their homes. In a programme to be announced within weeks, many of the 50 schools targeted by ministers are likely to be earmarked for removal from the control of local education authorities and given extra government cash as new City Academies.

Action on the hitlist represents a big expansion of the City Academy programme, the Government's latest great hope for transforming inner-city education.

Earlier attempts, notably the Fresh Start scheme - in which schools were closed and re-opened with new names, new heads and new teaching staff - are now recognised as failures. Critics say the City Academy scheme is little more than a repackaging of the same idea. Only three City Academies have opened so far. Officially, 33 are due to open across England by 2006.

However, senior government sources have indicated that many more are envisaged for London, effectively removing large swathes of secondary education in the capital from any direct connection with failing education authorities.

Each school will receive up to £2million from a commercial or charitable sponsor, chosen from a list already drawn up in Whitehall. In addition, they will receive an extra £ 10million from the Government.

Heads and governors will be given sweeping powers to vary the curriculum, suiting lessons to the abilities and aptitudes of their pupils, and to tear up national pay deals with staff.

The expansion of the scheme, however, is a highrisk strategy for ministers. Removed from local authority control with a direct link to Whitehall, the Government has no one else to blame if the schools continue to fail.