New powers for all secondary schools

All secondary schools will be offered more freedom to run their own affairs under plans to transform state education standards, the Government will announce this week.

Ministers will seek to head off a potential backbench rebellion by making clear that new rights to set pay rates, borrow money and amend the National Curriculum will be open to every school rather than a 500-strong elite.

In a further nod to Labour MPs worried about some of the plans, specialist comprehensives will also be allowed to offer two areas of expertise rather than just one at present.

Most backbenchers are comfortable with specialist schools, which excel in one key subject and often produce better exam results than their more generalist counterparts.

Education Secretary Charles Clarke will declare he wants all 3,500 state secondaries to achieve specialist status. He announced the creation of 42 more specialist schools in London last week as part of 1,900 already created nationwide.

In his five-year plan for education to be announced this Thursday, Mr Clarke will reveal that schools will be allowed to develop a second speciality to increase their appeal to pupils and parents.

This will help to improve the credibility of some specialist schools, such as those that focus on sport or technology, by adding expertise in areas such as languages or the arts.

Mr Clarke will stress that specialist schools will hugely outnumber the more controversial city academies that have caused so much unrest within the Cabinet and among Labour MPs.

Tony Blair has won his battle to expand the number of academies, which could be run and part funded by the private sector, from 12 to 200. But Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has made clear his worries about using muchneeded funds to support the schools.

Labour MPs were planning a rebellion on a scale similar to that over student top-up fees over plans to give some schools freedom to set their own pay rates and borrow cash.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said the plans to allow borrowing were confused. "What happens if, because of the vagaries of future Government funding, schools default on loans?" he said. "Does that mean a school could go bankrupt?"