The Conservatives have launched their school discipline policy with a promise to increase the number of pupil referral unit places by 500 per cent.

Party leader Michael Howard also said that headteachers will be given complete control over school admissions policies in a bid to win the vote of educational traditionalists.

Vowing to remove the worst offenders from disrupting other pupils' lessons, the Tories pledged to fund an increase in PRU places from 4,000 to 24,000 at an estimated cost of £200 million per year.

PRUs will also be rebranded as "turnaround schools" as the party stressed that unruly children will not be left behind and that basic standards of achievement will rise under a Conservative administration.

"School standards are closely linked to behaviour in the classroom. Bad behaviour is often born of frustration," Howard said.

"If children leave primary school unable to read or write or add up properly, how can we expect them to participate in class at secondary school? If bright pupils are not intellectually challenged in the classroom, is it any wonder that they get bored and cause trouble?

"And if youngsters who know they are never going to make it to Oxbridge cannot learn a practical skill, they will get angry and frustrated with an inflexible academic curriculum which seems only to highlight their failings?

"I want to live in a society where the brightest pupils are really stretched so that they can make the most of their abilities. The 'all must have prizes' approach to exams is undermining standards. I want to live in a society where every child is taught to read, write and add up properly.

"Many parents want their children to be taught using traditional methods – and under Conservative proposals they will have the right to choose schools that provide it. There is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that traditional teaching methods – phonics, arithmetic, times tables – are the most effective means of teaching children to read, write and add up."

Power

Howard argued that Labour has constrained the power of headteachers but promised to provide a "decent education" to all.

"We will give heads and governors complete control over admissions," he said.

"They will no longer be forced, as they are to be under Mr Blair's government, to admit pupils expelled from other schools. And we will give head teachers complete control over expulsions.

"That said a child's future is far too precious simply to be written off because they are expelled from school.

"Today, too many expelled children simply fall out of education altogether, wasting their potential and, often, getting into crime. They deserve a decent education to get back on track for a successful and fulfilling future."