Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Over 1,000 Schools Applying to be Academies

The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 2 June 2010.

I believe that headteachers and teachers know best how to run schools, not local bureaucrats or politicians. That’s why last week I wrote to every school in the country inviting them to take up academy freedoms if they wished to do so. The response has been overwhelming. In just 1 week, over 1,100 schools have applied. Of these, 626 are outstanding schools, including over 250 primary schools, nearly 300 secondary schools (over half of all the outstanding secondary schools in the country) and over 50 special schools.