Tuesday 4 May 2010

The three main parties' attitude to EDUCATION

It's good to receive something on the election that for a change isn't "Bla Bla Bla I'm the best" and tells you nothing! Here at least you're invited to use your brain!

I've just received what I thought was a balanced view from a moderate but active teaching union - the NASUWT:

What the parties are pledging for education

CONSERVATIVES:

1. All headteachers will be given the power to pay good teachers more in order to attract the best teachers and subject specialists.

2. Teacher training will be reformed with the expansion of Teach First and the introduction of two new schemes: Teach Now for people looking to change career and Troops to Teachers to attract ex- service personnel into teaching. In addition, the entry requirement for taxpayer funded primary school teaching will be raised and graduates will need at least a 2:2 to qualify for state funded teacher training.

3. Reinforce discipline by strengthening home-school agreements and giving teachers new powers to deal with violence in the classroom.

4. Key Stage 2 tests and league tables will both be retained and made more rigorous and technical academies will be introduced to develop vocational learning.

5. Academy schools will drive forward education reforms with any good education provider given powers to open an academy and all existing schools given the opportunity to become academies. The academy programme will also be extended to primary schools.

6. School inspection will become more rigorous and will focus only on the areas directly related to teaching and learning. Any school that is in special measures for more than a year will be taken over by an academy provider.

7. Parents will have the power to take over and run schools threatened with closure.

NASUWT’s comments in brief

The rhetoric of opportunities and high standards of education for all is right, but the policies intended to deliver it are wrong.

The Conservative mantra of freedom for schools and teachers is seductive but deceptive.

Freedom comes at the high price of, among other things, abandoning national pay and conditions of service for teachers and allowing all schools to select their pupils.

The education manifesto is a patchwork of policies, littered with contradictions.

This education manifesto is not about giving power to the people. The massive expansion of academies is about throwing state schools to the mercy of the free market to gamble with, and profit from, taxpayersʼ money.

LABOUR

1. Secure the recovery by supporting the economy now and more than halve the deficit by 2014 through economic growth, fair taxes and cuts to lower priority spending.

2. Spending increased on Sure Start and free childcare services, schools and 16-19 learning.

3. An expansion of free nursery places for two year olds and introducing 15 hours a week of flexible, free nursery education for three and four year olds.

4. Ensuring that every pupil leaving primary school is secure in the basics, with a 3Rs guarantee of one-to-one and small-group tuition for every child falling behind, and in secondary schools, a personal tutor for every pupil and a choice of good qualifications.

5. A choice of good schools in every area and, where parents are not satisfied, the power to bring in new school leadership teams, through mergers and takeovers, with up to 1,000 secondary schools part of an accredited schools group by 2015.

6. A guaranteed place in education or training until 18 for every young person, with 75 per cent going on to higher education or completing an advanced apprenticeship or technician level training by the age of 30.

NASUWT’s comments in brief

For the last 13 years, the Labour Government has focused on rebuilding the education infrastructure through unprecedented investment and positive workforce reform in partnership with trade unions.

That investment is clearly set to continue.

The proposal for the chains of providers and the number of schools involved had been signalled prior to the publication of the manifesto.

The NASUWT welcomes the commitment that these chains will operate under national pay and conditions of service but there is no evidence that structural change is the key to raising standards. We, therefore, continue to oppose the governance and management of schools being handed over to external providers.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS:

1. Invest £2.5 billion in a ‘Pupil Premium’ to boost education opportunities for every child.

2. Guarantee special educational needs (SEN) diagnostic assessments for all five year olds and improve SEN provision and training for teachers.

3. Improve teacher training by expanding the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) and Teach First.

4. Establish a fully independent Educational Standards Authority (ESA) to oversee the examinations system, school inspection and accountability and the curriculum.

5. Reform the curriculum by slimming down the bureaucratic Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and inflexible National Curriculum. Scale back Key Stage 2 tests at age 11 and create a

General Diploma to bring GCSEs, A levels and high quality vocational qualifications together, with14–19 year olds given the right to take up a course at college, rather than at school, if it suits them better.

6. Introduce an Education Freedom Act banning politicians from getting involved in the day-to-day running of schools.

7. Replace academies with ‘sponsor- managed schools’. These will be commissioned by and accountable to local authorities and could be run by educational charities and parent groups.

8. Give schools and colleges more freedom over teachers’ salaries, while ensuring that all staff receive the minimum national pay award.

NASUWT’s comments in brief

The screening of every pupil at the age of five to identify their special educational needs (SEN) could have unintended consequences unless a comprehensive package of support is also guaranteed to meet any special educational needs (SEN) identified.

The proposal to allow every 14 year old the right to choose to attend college rather than school is puzzling. The direction of travel for 14-19 education and training is increasingly based on collaboration between schools and colleges. There is a risk of placing too much emphasis on the place where a pupil is educated rather than the nature of the curriculum they receive.

These proposals, together with those to extend parental leave rights and the provision of 20 hours of free childcare, are ambitious but need to be properly costed if they are not to become a pious wish list.

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