Education candidates insists parents will have final say over controversial Academy plans
Two of the men who could be in the running to become education minister following the General Election have said they would not force schools in Northampton to be turned into academies if parents were against the idea.
Labour's Ed Balls and Conservative John Hayes both visited Northampton separately yesterday to discuss education and training schemes in the town.
During a visit to the Barclaycard head offices in Moulton Park, Mr Balls heard details of a scheme backed by the company to help single parents move back into work.
He was also questioned on controversial school academy schemes in Northampton, such as plans for Weston Favell School, which collapsed at the end of last year.
And he pledged his party would not force through academies in areas where they were unpopular.
He said: "Across the country, the evidence is that where we've got schools that have not been doing well, academies do work.
"I'm not going to impose academies, it should be the people's decision.
"But where there are academies, they do work.
"And we can't simply say 'you can do nothing' and just stand back and put up with schools that are not doing well."
Plans to transform troubled Weston Favell School into an academy collapsed shortly before Christmas after the trust which was due to take over its operation pulled out.
Two months later, the school was put into special measures following the publication of a critical Ofsted report.
The Conservative spokesman on further and higher education, John Hayes, was also in town yesterday, to visit Northampton College's campus in Booth Lane to see how its expansion programme was developing.
On the academies issue, he said: "We welcome proposals for schools that have got the support of the community.
"Our manifesto very much focuses on giving people a local choice and I think it's absolutely right that we should have a range of different schools.
"But it's certainly not our intention to impose any policy on people. I's for them to generate ideas for the way things should go.
"After all, good schools take many forms and they need to be responsive to people's needs, parental wishes and students' aptitude."
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