TEACHERS gave a collective sigh of despair yesterday as the Queen’s Speech showed no signs of let-up in Michael Gove’s ideological assault on state education.

Teaching unions NUT, NASUWT and ATL all hit out at the policy statement’s failure to address concerns around privatisation and pension cuts.

“It is deeply disappointing that there is no change signalled in the Queen’s Speech regarding the direction of education policy in the run-up to the general election,” said NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates.

“The ideological bandwagon continues to roll on academies and free schools, despite the fact that major problems are emerging on an almost daily basis in relation to governance, use of public money and lack of public accountability”.

Mr Gove’s education policies have come under a barrage of criticism.

Ms Keates suggested that they created a “flawed and elitist curriculum” 

The NUT also highlighted the lack of evidence evidence that free schools were improving education, pointing out that 52 per cent of pupils in the Education Secretary’s pet projects were in schools deemed as requiring improvement or inadequate by Ofsted.

“This is despite the huge sums of money that has been spent on setting them up, often — as the public accounts committee has pointed out — in areas where they are not needed,” said general secretary Christine Blower.

ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said that “schools and colleges are in danger of becoming exam factories.”