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Twenty-four brand new free schools which will equip teachers and heads with more liberty in the classroom are set to open next month, all aimed at boosting the standard of education.

Free Schools, like academies, will receive their funding directly from Whitehall. However they will possess greater authority than schools run by local authorities over aspects such as the length of the school day, the syllabus and how they allocate their budget.

Described by the Department for Education as “all-ability state-funded schools set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community,” the schools are not allowed to make a profit, and all funds raised will have to be injected back into improving education for pupils.

Education Secretary Michael Gove acknowledged that the most pressing issue for any parent is to be able to send their child to a good local school “with high standards and strong discipline,” insisting that this concern was one the main drives behind opening free schools across the country.

He pointed out that too many children are being failed by “fundamental flaws” in England's education system, where the weakest schools are concentrated in the poorest towns and cities, and as a result the country is “plummeting down” the international education league tables.

“In spite of years of investment, the situation is worsening,” Mr Gove added. “Children from disadvantaged homes are still falling behind. A change of approach is vital.

“By freeing up teachers and trusting local communities to decide what is best, our reforms will help to raise standards for children in all schools.”

The Department for Education received 323 applications from free school proposer groups and only 24 were approved to open this year. Of the new schools, 17 are primary schools, five are secondary schools and two are all-age schools.

The government also hopes that the new schools will help ease the shortage of primary school places in London and the Midlands.

Canary Wharf College in London, one of the 24 approved schools, has been set up by local parents. The school is directed at adopting "a Christian environment, welcoming children from different faiths and backgrounds" and will prove to be beneficial in an area that suffers from a shortage of places.

Another free school in Hammersmith, London is set to be traditional, with Latin compulsory for students up to age of 14.

“I believe that all children can benefit from learning Latin, from seeing the plays of Shakespeare and from studying our island story. To deny them that opportunity on the grounds that those things are ‘elitist’ is inverted snobbery,” said Toby Young, the journalist and writer who is the driving force behind the West London Free School.

“We’ll never dismantle the English class system if poor children are herded into media studies classes and forced to watch East Enders while the children of the rich are introduced to the best that’s been thought and said. That’s not social justice, it’s social apartheid,” he added.

However, Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, strongly opposes the concept of a free schools programme, labelling it a “reckless experiment with the future of children and young people”.

“Free schools have been selective and socially divisive - and there is no evidence they have raised standards,” she said.

However, similar ventures have attested that free schools are fully worth the investment – estimated to range from £110m up to £130m for the first 24 schools.

Charter schools in New York, fairly similar to free schools, have played a crucial part in closing the gap between rich and poor students - by 86% in maths and 66% in English.