With next week becoming one of the most historical events in the 21st century for politics and the UK, how will the General Election shape our education system?
Education has always been one of the top issues for the government with each party placing it high on their agenda as an area to improve. In recent years we have seen initiatives such as the 14-19 Reform, Every Child Matters Agenda, reduced class sizes and free nursery places for under 5s introduced. But what changes will we see over the next few years?
The three main parties have released their manifestos and although they all seem to put education as a top priority how do their policies differ from one another?
The Labour Party has promised:
To continue to roll-out Academies independent of local authority control
To increase free nursery hours
To introduce “licence to practice” for teachers
To encourage schools to pool budgets in school chains, allowing stronger schools to raise standards in weaker schools.
The Conservative Party has pledged:
To allow every existing school, including primaries, to seek academy status
To give local parents the chance to take over schools threatened by closure
To create a Pupil Premium, giving more money to schools that teach the poorest children
To give head teachers power to pay “good” teachers more
The Liberal Democrat Party has proposed:
To replace National Curriculum with a Minimum Curriculum Entitlement to allow teachers more flexibility
To create a General Diploma made up of GCSEs, A-Levels and Vocational Qualifications
To guarantee Special Educational Needs (SEN) assessments for all 5-year-olds.
To provide £32.5bn for a “Pupil Premium” for schools teaching the poorest pupils.
It is safe to say that no matter which party comes into power, we will certainly see changes to our education system.
