Ed Balls: Parents denied 'fair choice' because one in five secondary schools is failing

Parents are being denied a "fair choice" because one in five secondary schools is failing its pupils, the Schools Secretary admitted yesterday.

Ed Balls conceded that families in many areas were forced to choose between a top-performing school and two which were "considerably weaker".

Critics said his comments amounted to a confession of Labour's failure to get to grips with education since 1997.

The Minister's comments came in the week that 100,000 parents missed out on places at popular secondary schools.

Mr Balls admitted admissions would never be fair while hundreds of comprehensives were still under-performing.

He said 638 secondaries - one in five - were failing to meet a basic Government target for performance in the three Rs at GCSE.

Some schools would need to be closed and others turned into part-private academies before parents could be given a proper choice, added Mr Balls.

His remarks will be little comfort to those parents denied their first choice this week when councils offered places to 560,000 pupils aged ten and 11.

Mr Balls, who attended the top-performing-private school Nottingham High, said there would always be parents "upset and disappointed" at being denied a place at their first-choice school.

"If you have one excellent school in an area and two considerably weaker schools, that is not really a fair choice," he told the conference of the Association of School and College Leaders in Brighton.

"Parents want every local school to be good. Until we get there, we will always be dealing with over-subscription."

The introduction of lotteries to allocate places in some areas is thought to be a factor behind rising dissatisfaction.

Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb said: "It's an admission of failure but it's an honest admission. We need to raise standards with more setting by ability and tough discipline."