The Federal Coalition Government has reaffirmed its election pledge to work with the states and territories to make 25% of public schools across Australia "independent" by 2017.

As part of the Coalition's policy to grant principals and parents more autonomy in the running of schools, Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne told the Sunday Telegraph: "Rubber will start to hit the road in 2014."

"The philosophy of the Coalition is that we believe that principals and properly qualified parents are perfectly capable of making excellent decisions for their local schools," he said. Under the proposed reforms, school principals will have the power to hire staff and set school budgets.

The Coalition has boasted the reforms will boost public school enrolments, reversing the trend of parents choosing to go private.

“I think it is transformative and most importantly it puts students first. Students should be the number one priority for any government in terms of education”, said Mr Pyne.

The Teachers’ Union is opposed to the plan, accusing the Coalition of trying to turn public schools into private schools and cover up a cost-cutting agenda.

The Education Union has argued the reforms will not improve student achievement, enrolment and retention numbers.

The Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten also raised concerns during the election, that this plan was merely a smokescreen for casting aside Gonski school reforms to allocate more money for public schools.

Under the Independent Public Schools model, a $70 million fund has been announced by the Abbott government to encourage states to train principals to take control of their school budgets. In Victoria and Western Australia, self-managing public schools are already in existence with currently 225 Independent Public Schools in Western Australia. It is hoped nearly two-thirds of all schools will be independent or self-managing by the end of the year.