News Story

Gove promises cash for school buildings

Despite the abolition of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme, Education Secretary, Michael Gove has said that investment in school buildings in England will continue.

Gove said that 'hype' over the elimination of BSF has led the public to think that there would be no future spending and has defended his academies and free schools policies in front of MPs at the cross-party Education Select Committee.

He said that the decision to cancel the programme had not been an easy one but that money would be made more directly available to schools to develop their buildings in the future.

Gove was also quizzed about his policy on academies and free schools and over the speed at which the Academies Bill has been pushed through Parliament.

He said: "The haste is because I believe we desperately need to transform our educational system. I think that despite the best efforts of ministers who have held this office before me, that our educational system in this country is not good enough."

The education secretary also responded to questions about the mistake on an initial list of schools affected by changes released by the Department of Education and admitted that the errors were 'wholly my responsibility'.

Gove added: "With the benefit of perfect twenty-twenty hindsight, we can acknowledge that mistakes were made but I just want to stress that my officials were diligent in ensuring that the list was checked, but ultimately the responsibility is mine."