A NORTH-EAST town has been praised by the Government for the number of its schools converting to academies, despite the region showing less enthusiasm for the scheme than elsewhere in the country.

The North-East has 81 schools that have opened as academies or have submitted an application.

The initiative has been embraced in Darlington, where all the secondary schools and nearly a third of primary schools have made, or are making, the change.

However, it has been less well received in other parts of the region.

In Hartlepool, only two schools have applied to opt out of council control, while only three schools have applied in Stockton and in Redcar and Cleveland.

Although the number of schools converting to academies is rising in the North-East, the region continues to have the lowest take-up in the country.

Only five per cent of its schools have converted to academy status, compared to 12 per cent in the South-West, which has the most open academies. The North-East, together with the North-West, also has the lowest percentage of primaries converting to academies – only one per cent.

In comparison, the South-West has six per cent.

Darlington’s enthusiasm for academies was recently praised by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb also highlighted the town at the North of England Education conference in Leeds last week, when he urged other areas of the region to follow Darlington’s lead.

He said: “Becoming an academy gives heads the freedom to make a real difference.

“Longer school days, better paid teachers, remedial classes, more personalised learning, improved discipline, innovative curricula – these are just a few of the things that academy heads are doing to give the children in their care the best possible education.”

Darlington Borough Council leader Bill Dixon said the town’s schools had a proud record of raising standards in collaboration with each other.

He said: “Darlington’s school leaders make decisions which are in the best interests of the children of the borough and of the borough as a whole.”

Number of open or planned academies (by local authority): County Durham 13; Darlington 15; Hartlepool 2; Middlesbrough 4; North Yorkshire 10; Redcar & Cleveland 3; Stockton 3; Sunderland 9.