The initial windfall of £100m is being earmarked to refurbish or rebuild every secondary school in the next decade under the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ scheme. It is hoped all schools will be completely “green” or at least will have substantially reduced their CO2 emissions within this timeframe.

Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, said of the initiative: “If we succeed, this could result in 2,000 carbon neutral secondary schools enabling us to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by eight million tonnes over the next decade. That’s over two thirds of the 2,950 secondary schools in the UK.”

An additional sum of £110m has been designated for the building of 200 new schools over the next three years. The new establishments will be based on the blueprint of Liverpool’s award winning St Francis of Assisi Academy, the country’s first state-aided “green” academy for 11- to 16-year-olds.

A further £72m is being spent on equipping schools with features such as wind turbines, solar panels, low-emission light bulbs and insulated windows, with another £10m being channeled into twinning schools with academies abroad to teach children about matters such as rainforest preservation and the planting of new forests.

“Our schools can be built to last into the next century but they should be constructed to enable the planet to survive for the centuries beyond,” added Mr Johnson.