Head teachers would be given powers to dismiss poor teachers and pay bonuses to good ones under a Conservative government, Michael Gove said last night in a speech setting out his party’s education policy in detail for the first time.

Schools could permanently exclude children, who would then have no right to an independent appeal, and Ofsted would be able to arrive at a school and inspect it with no notice.

The best schools, and eventually all schools, would be encouraged to become academies — semi-independent state schools that were devised by Tony Blair.

Mr Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, described the policies as a “brisk, no-nonsense approach to education”. He said that leading schools could become academies straight after a Tory victory in the general election, and he would also allow primary schools to become academies.

“At the moment there are more than 400 secondary schools which are good or outstanding which could become academies within weeks of a change of government.

“They will act as a goad and a spur to improvement in neighbouring schools,” he said in the speech in Westminster to the Centre for Policy Studies.

The bar would be raised for trainee teachers: candidates would have to achieve at least a 2:2 in their degree and a B, rather than a C, in English and maths GCSEs.

The Tories have previously announced their intention to imitate the Swedish model of schools, but Mr Gove said that his party would replicate the system of teacher recruitment and training in Finland and Singapore.

“In Finland and Singapore, teachers are drawn from the top 10 per cent of graduates,” he said. “Because only the best can teach, competition to teach — and be counted among the best — is fierce.”

Primary school teachers would come from the top one third of graduates, rather than the top two thirds at present, and the Tories would allow only one re-sit of compulsory literacy and numeracy tests.

Head teachers would have wideranging freedoms, Mr Gove said. “We will give all heads the power to pay bonuses. It is vital that schools have flexibility over pay so they can reward teachers for longer hours.”

Teachers accused of abuse by pupils would remain anonymous during any investigation, and disciplinary action or criminal charges would have to be brought within a month, or the case would automatically be dropped. Rather than being passed from school to school, disruptive pupils would attend pupil referral units or new boarding academies, where they would live apart from their families.

Mr Gove said that he wanted schools to increase social mobility, instead of deepening the divide between rich and poor. He said: “Out of 75,000 children eligible for free school meals, only 5,000 were entered for A levels. Of these just 189 got three As and of those only 75 were boys.

“Yet in the same year Eton had 175 boys who got three As at A level. One school with almost two-and-a-half times as many boys getting As as the entire population of our poorest boys on benefit — it is an affront to any idea of social justice, a scandalous waste of talent.”

Times Recommends

• How I lost the gift of joy for a while
• Why Ann Widdecombe has got it wrong
• Alas, it’s the end of the road for petrolheads