Tweet
Labour is promising that almost one in three secondary schools in England will be part of federated chains of schools - as it unveils its election manifesto.Launching his party's plans, Gordon Brown said he wanted to see a thousand schools in such partnerships by 2015.
Labour wants more successful schools to take over or merge with underperfoming ones to improve them.
Mr Brown also highlighted his party's promise to give individual tuition to pupils who have fallen behind.
Introducing his plans for education if Labour returned to office, Mr Brown promised an expansion of schools working together - in which weaker schools become part of a wider group of schools, headed either by a high-achieving school or by an accredited education provider.
It would mean "brilliant educational innovators will lead, not only their own schools, but raise standards in others as well," said Mr Brown.
Parent ballot
Labour has been promoting these forms of collaboration and outside help for some time, with 500 schools already in federations.
And it wants 500 schools, and other providers, to be accredited to run other schools by 2015.
The figure of 1,000 schools promised by Mr Brown is based on each of these accredited providers supporting at least one other school.
Labour's plans would mean that if parents are unhappy with the quality of their local school, they will be able to trigger a ballot on whether the school should be taken over by an outside provider.
In the run-up to the calling of the general election, the Schools Secretary Ed Balls had announced a list of accredited providers that might run such groups of schools.
These providers include universities, colleges, charitable groups and individual schools, including independent schools.
There are already chains of schools run by sponsors, such as the Harris Federation which runs a number of schools in south London.
Labour's manifesto sets out a series of commitments on funding and access to education - which it wants to see as dividing lines with political opponents.
The party says it will protect front-line spending for schools and Sure Start early years services.
It also restates its commitment for one-to-one tuition for pupils at the end of primary school who have been falling behind.
Mandarin lessons
For teenagers, there is the promise of a place in education or training up to the age of 18, with 75% having places either in higher education, apprenticeships or technical training.
Acknowledging that there are "tough choices" on spending, much of the manifesto for education is about protecting existing investment, rather than further expansion.
The idea of providing free school meals for all primary pupils will not now be considered until next year.
There are some other details on offer.
There will be a specialist teacher training qualification for Mandarin, to increase the availability of Mandarin lessons in primary schools.
And the manifesto restates the promise of "free access to broadband" for poorer families to help their children's learning.
There is a guarantee of "constructive activities" for all primary age pupils between 8am and 6pm in term time.
'Untested experiment'
And for older pupils, there is an intention to expand cadet forces.
With surging numbers of applicants for university places, there have been warnings of tens of thousands of young people missing out.
There are few signposts for future policy in this area - with an inquiry into funding not set to report until the autumn.
But the manifesto says that any future expansion in places is likely to prioritise foundation degrees, part-time students and degrees in the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths.
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, welcomed the protection of front-line spending.
But she challenged Labour's support for schemes such as expanding the number of academies when public spending was under such pressure
"I find it bizarre that the party that has legislated to halve the budget deficit over the next four years would want to push ahead with the expensive and untested experiment that is the academies programme," she said.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.