PUPILS at “failing” Mersey schools would be given an annual £7,000 voucher to “spend” on switching to a successful school, under controversial plans handed to Gordon Brown yesterday.

The “education credit” would be worth 50% more than the cost of teaching a pupil – giving thriving schools an incentive to accept students from poorer areas.

Former cabinet minister Alan Milburn said the scheme was the only way to take talented working-class youngsters out of “ghettos of disadvantage” and give them a route to top jobs.

But he immediately admitted the idea – a key plank of a report to end “elitism”, ordered by Mr Brown – would be bitterly opposed by teachers, who fear it would make struggling schools even worse.

And the comments will be controversial in Merseyside and Cheshire, where 28 schools are “consistently underperforming” because of poor GCSE results.

The 28 are secondaries where less than 30% of pupils achieved five GCSEs no lower than grade C, including English and maths.

The schools are in Liverpool (8), Knowsley (6), Wirral (4), Sefton (4), Cheshire (3), St Helens (1), Halton (1) and Warrington (1).

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has threatened to shut down any school falling short in 2011.

But all 28 secondaries – among 440 across England – have been given extra funding and advice to drag them above the 30% benchmark within two years.