Government drops plans to force all schools in England to become academies

The Government has dropped plans to force all schools in England to become academies in the face of opposition from teaching unions, Tory MPs and councils.

The U-turn by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan comes after a backlash to the proposal to take schools out of local authority control by 2022.

Ministers still hope that a large number of schools will choose to convert to academies, but the plan is now an "aspiration" rather than a compulsory policy, the Department for Education said.