Westminster sources suggest that Gillian Shephard, Education and Employment Secretary, favours only minor changes to the rules governing opting out.

Consultation has just finished on a range of options that would speed up the process. These include dispensing with the parental ballot for voluntary-aided schools. However, the overwhelming opposition to such proposals from the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches may mean the more radical measures will have to be dropped.

The problem for Mrs Shephard is that the Prime Minister is reluctant to abandon proposals that he personally initiated. Mr Major first announced plans to target the 4,000 church schools in a policy speech to the Grant-Maintained Schools Foundation in September. He said: “Grant-maintained status is the logical choice for church schools.”

There have been more than 2,000 responses to the consultation on the proposals and the DFEE is committed to publishing a summary to be placed in the Commons library. According to a Parliamentary answer obtained by Labour, 1,629 voluntary-aided or controlled schools replied to the consultation, plus 68 diocesan boards or other church bodies and 77 local education authorities.

The legislation was originally promised for early in the new year and was to be included in the Bill introducing nursery vouchers.

Any decision not to proceed would be particularly embarrassing in the wake of last week’s postponement of the privatisation of student loans.

According to the DFEE, no decision has been taken on which of the six options will go ahead. Mrs Shephard said: “The Prime Minister and I feel very strongly about the advantages of self-government for schools, and work on extending that benefit to all schools is continuing.”

However, there is little evidence that church schools are keen to become grant-maintained. In the 1994-95 school year, there were 15 ballots conducted by church schools and of those, only nine voted in favour.

Of the 1,000 grant-maintained schools, 231 are former voluntary-aided. Around one-third of the church schools have responded to the consultation.

The Prime Minister’s office may argue that shortening the timescale for opting out will not prove effective. The process has already been shortened, 18 months ago, and that measure had little impact on the rate of schools balloting.

At present, governors are required to ballot parents within 10 weeks of a majority vote on the issue; schools have to publish their proposals within four months and there is a two-month period to allow objections to be lodged. Where parents vote in favour, the final go-ahead is given by the Education and Employment Secretary.