Top Tory: Let schools open for teaching on Saturdays

He signalled that under a Tory government, secondary school pupils could face an extended day and possible extra Saturday morning tuition.

Mr Gove said: "The countries undertaking the most impressive reforms, like charter schools in the States, are all reassessing their school days and the amount of time pupils spend in class. We should be open to doing the same.

"The rich have independent schools where their children do prep in an orderly environment. They have a longer school day and Saturday school with a wide range of activities. Why should that not be available in the state sector?"

Asked how teachers and local education authorities would respond to the proposals, Mr Gove conceded that: "Terms and conditions at the moment mean there isn't enough imagination given to do things like this. I don't want to prescribe it centrally. But I want to provide the opportunity for academies and new school providers to extend their hours if they agree it will lead to better results."

He cited American author Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers as evidence for his conversion to longer school hours: "What he discovered was that children from wealthier homes continue to be educated in their holidays at home. That's not true for pupils from poorer homes and it has a major impact on what is and isn't achieved."

Underperforming children, he claimed, would be the main beneficiaries.

"For many children the most orderly environment they have is the school and home life can be a turbulent environment," Mr Gove said. "Increased Saturday provision in school and a longer day can make a huge difference to what they will achieve." Reinforcing his support for an extended City Academies programme in London, he defended the programme against critics who claim it does not deliver value for money. He said: "The evidence shows academies improve at a far faster rate than schools in the rest of the state sector. What I want to do is give these schools more freedoms, where Labour is curtailing them."

He singled out the Burlington Danes city academy in west London for praise, after the school introduced its own system of regular internal examinations and published results in its internal league table.

Asked if this would not be hurtful to those lower down rankings, he replied: "I don't think so. What is hurtful is leaving children in a vague haze of unknowing about what they are doing.

"What this school is doing means the pupils know their teachers desperately care how they are doing and that the system is there for them."

Recalling his parents' struggle to pay for a private secondary education, he said: "I am adopted and neither of them had been to university. They made considerable sacrifices to send me to independent school and I had brilliant teachers: a constant set of excitements."

But he refused to say whether his youthful experiences had included cannabis or harder drugs. "David Cameron's line is the best one on that one. David said everyone is entitled to a private past."

He also attacked low standards in some GCSE courses, citing one biology paper from the Oxford and Cambridge board, which contained a question on whether grilled fish was healthier than battered sausages. "It's not surprising there is a lack of confidence in the exam system," he said.

"There are A-level boards where you can get an A at A-level French without having read Flaubert or Dumas or even Le Petit Nicolas."

He confirmed Tory support for the International GCSE which, he believes, offers a higher standard of work than the domestic GCSE.

Challenged that the rise in girls' performance in exams has been ascribed to them performing better in continuous assessment than exams, the Tory schools spokesman dismissed the criticism, saying: "I don't think any group can't rise to a high standard because of gender or anything else."

Sending his own daughter to state school was, he said: "A natural choice. My wife went to school in Italy, where only a small minority would dream of sending their children to private schools. That's the situation I'd like to see in the UK."

In a signal that education policy under the Conservatives will be firmly geared to improving the state sector, he also dismissed complaints from parents whose children are at private schools and say tax breaks should be offered to them because they pay twice for education - through the tax system and again in fees.

"We are going to throw everything at trying to solve the problem of underperforming state schools," he said. "I'm not interested in providing fur-lined lifeboats for people to get out of it."