§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the maintained schools in England designated as(a) failing schools, (b) requiring
49Wspecial measures and (c) having serious weaknesses indicating for each school (i) the parliamentary constituency in which it is situated, (ii) the local education authority in which it is situated and (iii) the number of pupils on roll at the school. [153293]
§ Ms Estelle Morris[holding answer 12 March 2001]: Schools which have been found by Ofsted to be failing or likely to fail to provide an acceptable standard of education for their pupils require special measures. Schools come in and out of special measures and serious weaknesses on a daily basis. Details are in inspection reports published by the schools themselves and by Ofsted on its website. I shall place a list of schools currently on special measures showing their local education authority and parliamentary constituency in the Library. The Department does not hold a list of schools having serious weaknesses.
More schools on special measures are being turned around and schools are on special measures for a shorter period. Twenty-seven schools were removed from special measures between September 1993 and May 1997 and 684 schools have been turned around since May 1997. The time taken to turn around school has fallen from 25 months to 18 months.