ONE of the first things the new Coalition Government did when it came to power two years ago was to cancel the previous governments Building Schools for the Future scheme.

New Education Secretary Michal Gove said the 55bn scheme was now unaffordable because of the economic downturn and a new, more targeted, more value-for-money scheme would have to be drawn up.

Last month Mr Gove announced that 261 out of the 587 schools which applied for the new Priority School Building Programme will be rebuilt or repaired.

A total of 27 schools in the region were selected, including five in County Durham, four in Stockton borough, three in Hartlepool borough, two in Redcar and Cleveland and one in North Yorkshire.

However, 19 unnamed schools in the North were among the 326 that missed out.

Mr Gove said the Government had to take "difficult decisions in order to target spending on those schools that are in the worst condition."

He said the condition of 42 schools is so severe that their applications will be dealt with straight away using capital grants. The rest of the schools on the approved list - including all special schools - will be rebuilt through a new, more cost-effective version of the private finance initiative.

The regional schools which will be first in the queue to be rebuilt include the Durham Trinity School and Sports College, a split-site special school in the Durham City area.

Others which will be fast-tracked using public money include West Cornforth Primary School, County Durham, Hill Top School in Gateshead, Ian Ramsey C of E Comprehensive in Stockton and Usworth Grange Primary in Sunderland.

Mr Gove said he was "determined to reduce the wasteful processes of the past" which is why the Government has developed new designs which should speed up the process and increase efficiencies.

He promised that schools rebuilt through PFI will have more control over activities such as cleaning, catering, security and grounds maintenance.

Pat Glass, Labour MP for North West Durham and member of House of Commons Education Select Committee said: "The Tory-led government is delivering less than a third of the schools Labour would have delivered in the region under Building Schools for the Future.

"Schools across my constituency and the North-East region will be disappointed by Michael Gove's failure to fight for the resources to give our children the learning environment they deserve.

"He's shown a complete lack of ambition on behalf of future generations. Teachers, parents and children of the schools who have missed out will be very disappointed."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: "The cancellation of Building Schools for the Future was handled badly. We all acknowledge that and should move on.

"We are glad that some of our most dilapidated schools are receiving attention and welcome particular attention to special schools, but the figures represent only half of those that applied. In the meantime, with capital budgets slashed by over half, much of the school estate is sliding towards disrepair. And this doesn't even begin to tackle the wave of new, reception age children on the horizon, which will require the equivalent of 10,000 extra classrooms in the next five years.

"Money is tight, and we can make do without luxuries, but it may turn out that the free school programme - diverting disproportionate amounts of funding into a relatively small number of uneconomical schools - turns out to be a very expensive choice indeed."