Great news. The public sector consumes huge amounts of cash for below average results. Just look at the results.

However, these new schools must be monitored -as in really monitored not Labour speak- to prevent extremist views producing further problems.

john, london,

I am all for my daughter being given the choice of taking the IB or APs without my having to stump up for the staggering fees at the international schools. We might actually end up with students that have options when they finish at 18!

Vanessa, Leigh,

They need to make sure the new schools are Islamic schools since they are the fastest growing segment of Britains population. 5.4 Births per woman (your statistics) Remember Europe will be 30% Muslim in 18 years so Arabic should be compulsory in schools also.

keith bentha, Wigan, uk

After too many years of changes in education there has been, in the last 18 months, greater calm and stability. What is not needed now is a huge educational revolution involving the closure of thousands of existing schools. Ask parents if they are satisfied with their child's school and most say yes

Ivan Godfrey, Taunton, UK

Simon@Exeter
RU seriously saying that teachers are overpaid? Prob too many mediocre teachers who cannot even spell them selves, too much interference from the Govt. Let parents have more choice & say.

GES, Leeds, UK

excellent excellent excellent. Great exciting plan by the next government. Not sure about lots of different exams being taken. I say all should do a national 3 year diploma 12-15 including core subjects and then the international batherette from 15-18. Lets crush labour so we can all move forwar

Heeners, Bath,

Fantastic idea. Having worked for a council, I saw the waste and incompetence first hand of the Local Education Authorities within the council.

As said in the article the biggest problem will be with the Union's. Because they will loose power. That shouldn't deter anyone though !!

Jamie, Bristol, United Kingdom

To Simon, Exeter. Not all teachers can afford porsches - senior managers maybe but not the average classroom practitioner. I wonder what role you went into school as? I wouldn't be surprised if it was as a teaching assistant or parent - as both seem to resent teachers getting paid for their skills.

Saul F, Manchester,

Dennis, there are more qualified teachers under 60 not employed in teaching than work as teachers in the UK. They just don't want to work in the appalling schools we have here at the moment.

James Wheeldon, Grange-over-Sands, UK

excellent policy. two things are achieved. Children receive a first rate education and the teaching unions are hammered. The perfect policy. Instead of an education system designed to benefit the teaching unions we will have an education system designed to benefit the children. bring it on.

BD MATHERS, birmingham,

I'd love to know exactly how many Porsches, etc., Simon from Exeter saw and in which schools' teachers' car parks. This is either an urban myth or every teacher in the rest of the country will be applying for a job in Exeter.

Geoffrey Warner, Didcot, UK

Thank god i live in wales and wont have to deal with this plan.

If you are going to follow the scandanvian model learning through play should be introduced as it is here in wales.

Mark Davies, CARDIFF , UK

So, the Tories believe current state schools are failing risibly, and their fix is to have up to 5,400 more state funded schools “spring up?” Pray tell, where will the teachers for these schools come from? The current pool of teachers or some magic well of more competent teachers, somewhere hiding?

Dennis Eagan, Colorado Springs, US

Why not save some money and instead of building more schools, stop paying family allowance and discourage women from having more children in an already populated island on already overpopulated planet.

m wilson, bidache, France

Tony Scully from Dublin is typical of the socialist response
that will come, they do not like loosing control and want to
impose their Soviet-Godless views on us all. However the
Soviet-Godless system simply dosen't work, that's why
Russia got rid of it and we must too.

Roderick, Somerset, England

Go for it David let's get this country back to some sort of normality after eleven years of left wing stupidity.

D Case, Newquay,

Why not just re-introduce the best system we ever had - grammar schools?

Rick O`Shea, UK,

A decentralised school system that gives greater power to schools to set their curriculum.

I expect Sir. Vardy and his fellow anti-evolutionists are rubbing their hands with glee.

Tony Scully, Dublin, Ireland

An interesting idea - perhaps the fee per pupil could also be increased if inspection reports were good, or parent and pupil satisfaction was high?

James E. Petts, Burnham, England

Envy! Envy!!, Envvy!!. Simon. Most teachers can not afford to ride those cars you talk about. There are wider variety of teachers now. I teach Economics and can afford to ride a luxury car because of my successful practical approach to investment instruments for many years. I am not alone!

Diamen, London, UK

So where does all the money come from ? Its only been a couple of months since it was stated that more pupils are passing the higher examinations, is this failure ?
Haven't schools been fiddled around with enough in the last fifty years ? How many more changes to completely wreck education ?

Phil de Buquet, Newport,

My children are fed up with the constant tinkering with their education.
They say they're only being taught to pass SATS and Exams and that real understanding of a topic features not at all.
They want proper knowledge/understanding so as to be competent and work effectively/efficiently as adults.

Jo, Newton Abbot, England

A vote for the Tories. Instant. Fresh radical thinking.
The Swedish system is really fantastic. Well done Tories. Now mirror the French healthcare system please.

Jane , London,

This is like the Charter schools in the US which are working very well to provide smaller higher quality schools and break up the "ghetto" schools into higher-performing schools. In the US the size of the schools is limited too (around 400-500 pupils). It works. Let's do it!

RW, London,

Les,
have you been educated in the U.S? i have up to High School level and it is not easy. Think hours of work every night if you take the most difficult courses available and after comparing material we learned to the UK A-lvl system, the U.S. system was more difficult and far more work.

alex, London, england

I've been working in a few schools lately. I noticed a lot of Porsche, Merc Sports, BMW's etc in the teacher's car park. That's where the money has been going so far, rather like the NHS, the money is blown on wages rather than anything useful.

Simon, Exeter, England

A'levels and O'levels used to be the gold standard for countries worldwide. Polticians have dismantled and destroyed our education system. Take politics out of education, have more funding, smaller class sizes and ask teachers what works.

Laura , Auckland , NZ

If they're going to be staffed by the same shower "teaching" in our state schools then this will fail.

A very nice idea - brilliant if if can be staffed by people from the real world instead of the current crop of losers who have gone along with Labour's disastrous mismanagement without a whimper.

Pinkie, London, United Kingdom

We all know that children from supportive homes do best ! And who are these chief executives from British industry going to be who will be heading up Govt departments ? The Board of the B & B are from many corners of British industry. If this is the sort of example we can expect, may God help us.

Mary York, York,

Clearly the Tories have go no credible policies.

Worst they haven't got a clue which way they are going. What you expect from a leader who cycles up the wrong way on a one way street!

How is adopting foreign exams is being British? Where has Cameron and co been during the financial crises?

Mohammed Khan, Bradford, UK

Best idea I've heard in a long time. At last take the running of schools of the hands of incompetent administrators and into the hands of the very people who make the British independent schooling sector such a massive success, even by international standards.

Abioye A Oyetunji, London, UK

Cameron is in grave danger of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

MarkS, Leeds,

" .. they will be allowed to abandon GCSEs and A-levels in favour of the International Baccalaureate, European or American exams" Oh yes - or Saudi religious examinations, no doubt, if there is a demand from the parents.

Thomas Goodey, Cuxton-upon-Medway, England

Can't be any worse than the system we have now!

The time I spent as an exam invigilator in this country led me to despair and was the moment when I glimpsed and understood just how staggeringly incompetent and out of touch centralized government control was.

John Louis Swaine, Colchester, United Kingdom

keep on planning, I'm sure the taxpayer - as he is a docile kind of person - will foot the bill.

dan, Zurich, Scotland

I'm amazed to hear myself say this but - as long as the schools are free at the point of access and profits are not allowed - I'm in favour!

Far too many of our state schools are poor (or worse) radical action is required, our children deserve that much.

Amanda, Birmingham, UK

I shall be voting Tory after voting Labour for 23 years. I am sick to death of the public sector with its waste and poor service. The 'take it or leave it' state model is dead. Lets get more competition into education and health and then parents & patients can have real choice.

Maxine, Crawley,

I won't be voting Tory then -this is outsourcing. I was looking for one nation Toryism but clearly I am not going to get it. If we can't even run our own examination system with pride and confidence then there is little hope for us.

Carol, London, UK

I have three children in fee paying schools and I welcome this new line of Tory policy. Thousands of middle class families live very modestly in order to send their children to half decent schools and to avoid the intellectually and morally bankrupt socialist comprehensive school system.

Justin Kelsey, Sevenoaks, UK

I was thinking seriously of voting Tory but I don't like these ideas. If we can't run even our own examination system with pride and confidence then we really are giving up. I hate to say it but sometimes it seems as if only the BNP has any pride in Britishness.

Carol, London, UK

Brilliant and tax relief should be afforded to those who spend their hard earned,already taxed (probably at 40%) savings back into society by educating their children and not using up the state's facilities.
The same should go for health schemes.

james allen, manchester, england

john, you don't understand just how bad education is in the UK.
In USA where it has got REALLY bad, home schooling has become really big - don't think idiots teaching gun law - think parents doing a better job than the pros!!!
This formula means less interference, less rubbishy control.
Go for it!!!

Les, Ramsgate, UK

"We want as much choice for parents as possible."

That just means more pseudo-free-market-style competition. Isn't that part of what's wrong with the current system?

The Tories just want to privatise state education. They've got worse, not better, since Thatcher.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

As long as the new private schools are free, it's actually a policy I support from dilettante Dave.

Jon, London,

What the, this sounds like a think tank proposal its unbelievable. What on earth are my party thinking its so wrong its like something the loony left of the seventies would have proposed. This is just simple out sourcing and its bad. When is the tory party gonna get back to sound values of old!

john, poole,