PM 'wants to run education like Tesco'

The leader of the biggest teaching union today accused the Government of preparing to charge parents for state education.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, claimed Tony Blair planned to apply the logic of university top-up fees to schools, running them "like Tesco stores".

Parents who could afford to do so would be expected to pay for all but the most basic education in a state school, he told the NUT annual conference in Harrogate. Mr McAvoy, in his farewell speech to the union after 15 years as general secretary, told delegates: "The school of the future will be franchised, branded and sponsored.

"The principle of free comprehensive education will be preserved in name and will be delivered as the free core curriculum. But additional subjects and teaching will be an optional fee-charged extra... It is the logical consequence of the Government's joined-up thinking." His claims echo a speech recently by a close confidant of Mr Blair, head of independent Brighton College Anthony Seldon. Mr Seldon proposed that parents who could afford to do so should be expected to contribute towards the cost of state schools, saying it was the only way funding could ever rise to the level of the independent sector.

A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said Mr McAvoy's claims were "hot air" and he "describes a future he knows will not happen in order to gain a few cheap headlines".