New schools constructed through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme have “little or no impact” on their pupils' achievements, according to a new report.
The decision of Education Secretary Michael Gove to scrap the £55bn scheme in July provoked outrage.
But the first research into attendance and attainment at BSF schools shows that the new buildings have made little difference to education standards.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that pupils make, on average, less progress than other similar pupils in similar schools, and that there is no significant difference in the levels of attendance between pupils in BSF schools and pupils in other schools.
Pupils at BSF schools attain a total GCSE points score on average 11 points lower than pupils at non-BSF schools, equivalent to almost two grades lower.
There was no significant difference in the level of absence between BSF schools and non BSF schools for year 9 and 11 pupils. However, year 9 pupils in schools that had a mixture of rebuild and refurbishment had, on average, significantly less unauthorised absence.
The research is based on Partnerships for Schools’ list of completed BSF projects as of July 2010, and compared pupils in 60 BSF schools to all pupils in England.
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