NO CONSISTENT evidence suggests academisation raises schools’ exam results, a new report confirms today.

In a report giving a verdict of “must do better” on academy chains, the Commons education select committee said that evidence for the case for school privatisation was “limited and varied.”

The report, described as “damning” by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), charts a ballooning in the number of “multi-academy trusts” (MATs) — groups of schools that are run as chains outside local authority control.