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Page Published: 01 March 2010

Promises, promises...

Carly Chynoweth compares what the UK’s main political parties

have planned for education policy should they win the forthcoming

general election.

LABOUR

Summary

Unsurprisingly for a party in power, Labour’s schools policy statement starts by mentioning that it has more than doubled spending on education in the past decade, from £30 billion in 1997 to £73.3 billion in 2008/09. It also lists a range of other achievements, including increasing the proportion of children with five good GCSEs by 20 percentage points; increasing the proportion of 11-year-olds reaching expected standards in maths and English; and rebuilding or refurbishing more than 1,100 new schools.

It promises to:

Provide 30,000 primary school pupils with numeracy support and 30,000 with literacy support ever year.
Provide one-on-one English and maths tuition for 300,000 pupils who are falling behind their peers.
Rebuild or refurbish every secondary school and at least half of all primary schools, although it does not set a deadline for this.
Provide every young person aged up to 18 an apprenticeship, training or a place to study free of charge by 2015.

The party wants every secondary school to partner with a university or business to become a specialist school, a trust school or an Academy; it also draws attention to the National Challenge programme, which is designed to ensure that at least 30 per cent of pupils at every school get five GCSEs, including English and maths, at A*-C.

If parents aren’t happy with their child’s school, they can…vote on whether they want to get rid of the school’s existing leadership and bring in someone else, such as a successful state school, a university or a business, to run it instead.

Show me the money. Labour says that it will protect “front line” education spending. However, in a newspaper interview late last year Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, outlined more than £2 billion of cost savings and said that up to 3,000 senior posts, including heads and deputies, could be cut. He told The Sunday Times: “If we are going to keep teachers and teaching assistants on the front line, that means we are going to have to be disciplined on public sector pay, including in education.”

CONSERVATIVES

Summary

In keeping with its “Broken Britain” theme, two of the first concerns raised by the Conservative party’s statement are truancy and violence in the classroom. It’s worried about Britain slipping down the international league tables in maths and English; it also describes education as “the most important thing we can do” to create a more equal and more socially mobile society. It blames bureaucratic and political interference in schools for undermining teachers and devaluing both the curriculum and exams, and promises to remedy this.

It promises to:

Raise the quality of teaching by demanding that primary school teachers earn at least a B in English and maths at GCSE level and that graduates obtain at least a 2:1 to qualify for state-funded training. It will also cover student loan repayments for top maths and science graduates for as long as they remain teachers.
Stop headteachers from being overruled by bureaucrats over exclusions.
Promote synthetic phonics and establish a “simple reading test” at six to reassure parents that their children are progressing.
Overhaul KS2 Sats; make exams more rigorous; and allow state schools to offer international exams.
Reform school league tables so that schools can show how they’re stretching top students and raising the attainment of those who are less able. It will also publish all DCSF performance data so that people can create all sorts of different league tables.
Set up technical Academies to support vocational education and fund 400,000 training places over the next two years.
End the “bias towards inclusion” of SEN pupils in mainstream schools.
Allow all schools, including primaries, to become Academies.
A more rigorous Ofsted regime that will include more unannounced inspections. Academy providers will take over any school that stays in special measures for more than a year.

If parents aren’t happy with the local school, they can…set up their own Academy. These free, non-selective state schools could be run by charities, parent and teacher groups, voluntary groups or co-operatives.

Show me the money. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans to eliminate the majority of the country’s budget deficit over the period of one parliament; he has promised to deliver a detailed department spending review by autumn, should the party take power. The Tories will also introduce a “pupil premium” that will weight funding towards children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

Summary

The Liberal Democrats open its policy statement by saying that too many children are still leaving school without the skills they need to succeed in life. The party considers that some people struggle to find a good school and that the curriculum lets down both the brightest children, who need to be stretched, and those who are struggling and need more help. It also feels that classes are too big for teachers to control.

It promises to:

Increase funding so that schools can cut class sizes, offer catch-up lessons and give children more individual support.
Replace the National Curriculum with a minimum curriculum entitlement that offers greater choice and flexibility.
Create a General Diploma that can be built from a mix-and-match selection of GCSEs, A levels and vocational qualifications.
Pass legislation that will ban politicians from having a say in day-to-day school life; and create an independent Education Standards Authority that can stand up to ministers.
Replace Academies with Sponsor Managed Schools; these will be based on the old Academy model but will not be subject to Whitehall control.
Make the GTC develop a formal CPD programme that will require teachers regularly to recertify their fitness to practice.
Recruit new heads by ensuring that leadership pay reflects their “huge responsibilities”; fast-tracking talented teachers into headship; and reducing the burden of central government initiatives.

If students aren’t happy with their school, they can…move to a college or a work-related learning provider when they turn 14.

Show me the money. The Liberal Democrats will increase spending on schools by £2.5 billion.