Tony Blair’s academies in poor areas are raising school standards but must do more to improve results in mathematics and English, according to a report from the National Audit Office.

While Labour’s most ambitious education project is “on track to deliver good value for money”, the report also raises concerns about budgets, the standard of sixth-form education and a lack of collaboration with other schools.

Sir John Bourn, head of the Audit Office, said the report showed that the academies programme was raising standards and the achievements of pupils from deprived backgrounds. But he added: “These are early days and more remains to be done, especially in improving English and maths results. The challenge for academies is to sustain the improvements while also spreading their benefits more widely in their communities.”

Seven years after the Government announced its ambition to turn around England’s failing schools, only a fifth of academy pupils are achieving five GCSEs at grades A*-C, including maths and English. While GCSE results are improving more quickly than other schools and Key Stage 3 results have risen, the NAO report makes clear that the £5 billion programme has more to do.

“Academies should give a high priority to literacy and numeracy learning to equip all of their pupils with these essential skills,” the report said. “The department’s education advisers should mirror this priority.”

At the same time, the public spending watchdog said that with costs overrunning by £3 million in each of 17 of the first 26 academies, the Government must ensure that the privately sponsored schools are sustainable.

Although the buildings were of a high quality, matched by strong leadership, Angela Hands, an NAO director, said that she was concerned about the poor performance of sixth forms, as average point scores for grades were lower in the 13 academy sixth forms than the national average. The problem is put down to their small size and a lack of emphasis on sixth-form schooling.

Academies, Ms Hands says, must collaborate with other secondary schools to provide more courses and break down any misconceptions about the academies.

“The issue of collaboration must be moved forward quite quickly, because if the small sixth forms continue, it will be difficult to achieve a full curriculum,” she said.

“It would also help to overcome the problems of not sharing facilities, because they could be giving help as well as receiving it”.

Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, agreed that sixth-form provision had posed “transitional issues”.

He added: “The issue is whether they will become successful and on the basis of what we have seen, as the critical mass grows, so we expect the standards to rise.”

The report said, however, that academies were unlikely to become a part of the community while they continued to be charged heavily under VAT regulations for sharing their facilities with other schools after hours in return for a nominal fee.

The Department for Education and Skills agreed that this “has to be sorted”, and sources say that they are in discussions with the Treasury about it.

Teachers’ unions and MPs continue to criticise the Prime Minister over the academies programme. In exchange for up to £2 million, private sponsors can decide the ethos of an academy, appoint its governors and help to set the curriculum.

There are 46 academies, and the Government plans to build 200 by 2010.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the Government “should stop the experiment. Academies are an expensive mistake – both with children’s education and taxpayers’ money – and need to be returned to local accountability without delay.”

£5bn project

-The academies were designed to replace failing secondary schools in poor areas. Tony Blair wants 200 open in 2010.

-Academies cost on average £24 million each or £27 million for new-builds. The average cost for a secondary school is £20 million to £22 million

-Costs of 17 of the first 26 academies, including Capital City Academy, above, designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank, overran by an average of more than £3m each. Twenty-eight were built in deprived areas

-VAT rules mean that academies cannot share facilities locally without being heavily charged. Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy was forced to pull down a nearly new sports hall rather than risk a £4.5 million VAT bill for refurbishment

-Permanent exclusions in 2005 were higher than in most similar schools Source: NAO report, 2007

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