Labour today leapt on the first closure of a flagship free school and warned of a potential nose-dive in British classroom standards.
The Government wants more free schools in the UK — but shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt claimed falling benchmarks in Sweden were a direct result of the establishments.
He spoke as Discovery Free School in Crawley prepares to close following a series of damning inspection reports.
Mr Hunt said: “David Cameron and Michael Gove told us that adopting the Swedish free schools model was the answer to raising school standards. As we know, this is not the case.”
He highlighted figures from the international PISA study showing that no country had fallen so abruptly in maths over the last 10 years as Sweden, going from 17th in 2003 to 38th in 2012.
Over the same period Sweden’s reading rank dropped from 8th to 36th and science rank from 15th to 38th.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has previously hailed Sweden as the “closest model” for what the Coalition is trying to achieve.
Mr Hunt said in a speech: “Sweden’s slide down the international league table is unprecedented. The for-profit free school model in Sweden has contributed to declining standards and rising educational inequality.
“And it’s having a detrimental impact on school standards here. We know that for the Tories, this is where they want to take schooling.”
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Discovery was one of the UK’s first free schools. After opening in 2011 it was put in special measures following Ofsted criticism, then ordered to shut.
The Standard reported earlier this week on leaked papers from Crawley Conservative Association which appeared to show that members requested a visit from a senior Tory but “not Michael Gove”.
Labour has ruled out opening further free schools, claiming that they divert money from other state schools which need it more.
But a source close to Mr Gove claimed the “vast majority” of free schools were achieving “amazing things” — with Ofsted rating two as “outstanding”, including one in Feltham, and five “good” in the last fortnight.
The source said: “Free schools are giving children from ordinary backgrounds the kind of education pre-
viously reserved for the rich.
“Yet Labour attack free schools at every opportunity. They can’t stand the idea that parents might want a better choice of school for their child.”