Conservative Education Draft Manifesto: Testing Times Ahead

David Cameron today launched the Conservative Party Education Draft Manifesto. It is based on three strands:

• Better teachers and tougher discipline
• A rigorous curriculum and exam system
• Giving every parent access to a good school

A few initial thoughts:

Better Teachers

[Ignoring the issue of what a manifesto commitment like this does for the morale of the present workforce,] the Conservatives aim to attract a higher calibre of teacher through two initiatives. First, in raising the academic entry qualifications for teacher training [to Grade B GCSE passes in Maths and English and a 2:2 degree], they are simply acknowledging the general grade inflation at both secondary and tertiary level. Secondly, by giving greater financial incentives to join and remain in the profession [the ability of schools to pay more; loans paid off for Maths and Science graduates who go into teaching], they are resurrecting old ideas that were dropped in the past for not being cost-effective.

Tougher Discipline

Measures such as clarity on the use of reasonable force, providing greater protection for teachers from false accusations, and giving more autonomy for Headteachers over exclusions will be welcomed by teachers and Heads alike. However, history has shown that it is much more difficult to effect real change on the ground in these areas than politicians make out.

A Rigorous Curriculum

There is nothing innovative in backing synthetic phonics - it's always easy to pick a winner once the race is over. The phrase "We will reform the National Curriculum so that it is more challenging and based on evidence about what knowledge can be mastered by children at different ages" would be worrying if it were not so vague.

A Rigorous Exam System

Well the bad news is that Key Stage Assessments and League Tables are not only here to stay, but are a cornerstone of the policy. I am not sure that there are going to be many schools around the country that take any pleasure in the thought of our six year olds doing a literacy examination, the results of which will be published in league tables. The real danger of this is that everyone will teach to the exam rather than teaching children to read and write. That the Conservatives are making a commitment to a "more robust and rigorous" version of KS2 SATs is a bit of a surprise, particularly given that the way in which they used the existing exams to torture the present Government. Allowing Maintained sector schools to do IGCSEs is long overdue, but I suspect is only driven by a desire to give some credibility back to league tables.

Giving every parent access to a good school

There is a strong commitment here to the Academy programme with an understandable focus of resources on the poorest and weakest areas of society. The commitment to "make sure Academies have the vital freedoms that help make them so successful in the first place" is welcome [not least because they have abandoned the abuse of the term "independent" - so beloved of this Government!]. However, there is no return to selection or Grammar Schools here - the emphasis continues to be on bringing up the bottom end, rather than on stretching the brightest.

Inspection

Given the ever increasing regulatory burden on all schools, the commitment that OFSTED will adopt "a more rigorous and targeted inspection regime, reporting on performance only in the core areas related to teaching and learning" is most welcome - but, given the importance of safeguarding in education, I'll believe this when it happens.

David Cameron's Speech launching the Education Manifesto
Tories plan literacy league tables for six year olds BBC Website 18/01/10

Elitism is not a dirty word in Education

Interesting Editorial in the Daily Telegraph on education

"... the problem lies not in the universities, but in the state-school system. Because of the failure of the "bog-standard comprehensives", to use a phrase coined by Alastair Campbell, the percentage of state-school students at Cambridge is lower than in 1980. Within the high-flying Russell Group of universities, the intake from independent schools is hugely disproportionate and, among state-school students, England's 164 surviving grammar schools are similarly over-represented.

What, then, to do? Yes, we could pack the universities with poorly performing students in the name of "fairness". Yet Britain's leading universities have evolved over centuries to world-class standards. To vandalise that national asset would be a mortal blow, leaving us hopelessly uncompetitive. Elitism is not a dirty word: it is the precondition for meritocracy. Lord Mandelson knows that; but he is playing pre-election politics.

The Government's overriding concern should not be those few institutions that are succeeding, but the many that are not. Instead, we have an education policy predicated upon the same prejudices as the Hunting Act. A future Tory government must not be inhibited by self-consciousness about its leaders' Bullingdon background. It must implement reforms that rebuild the ladder of opportunity for gifted students from poor backgrounds, and so secure Britain's place in a globalised, highly skilled and meritocratic world."

I believe that, despite the end of the Assisted Places Scheme, that independent schools will continue to have an important part to play in 'rebuilding the ladder of opportunity for gifted pupils from poor backgrounds'. The Independent Schools Council would do the sector a great service if it were to research the number of pupils from poor backgrounds at Oxford and Cambridge - and the Russell Group universities - who have been educated in independent Schools. I would not be surprised if the independent sector has given more young people from humble backgrounds the opportunity to go on to top universities than the whole of the comprehensive school system.

Click here to read the DT editorial in full

An education policy of smoke and mirrors

Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul's, evaluates the Government's Education Policy in a well written piece in the Daily Telegraph today. Click here.