In his first major speech on education, the Prime Minister admitted that 670 schools in England were failing to provide an acceptable standard of education.
He said the schools – where fewer than a third of pupils leave with five good GCSEs, including the key subjects of English and maths – had to boost results within the next six years or face drastic action.
Local authorities were told to use powers to turn them into privately-sponsored academies or close schools altogether.
The threat comes just days after Ofsted, the education watchdog, insisted that, despite improvements under Labour, the standards achieved at many schools remained a “significant concern”.
