Is your child’s education going to be stable for the next 5 years?

With the election in full swing, many of you may be concerned about the effects that the next government will have on your child’s education. KSOL have decided to put forward party views to help you assess their commitments to education and come to a conclusion about what the next 5 years may hold in store for your children.

Grammar schools have long been a topic of debate between political parties. From 1965, hundreds of grammar schools were either closed down or converted to comprehensive schools by their Local Education Authorities under a Labour government circular. However, by the year 2000, 164 grammars remained and the Education Secretary attempted to avoid further debate by making a legislation that put a stop to the creation of any new grammar schools, and pushing through policies designed to focus on raising the standards of education rather than closing or converting schools.

Historically, left-wing parties have been against selective education and right-wing have been pro grammar schools, but what do 2015 manifestos tell us about our children’s future? We have highlighted the top 3 suggestions from the main political parties:

Conservative Manifesto:

• They will aim to improve education by ensuring a good primary school place for every single child.
• They will expand the National Leaders of Education programme so that every failing and coasting secondary school is placed under the best leadership. These may also be turned into academies, delivering free schools to parents and communities who want them.
• They will raise standards so that any child who does not reach the required level by the end of primary school will have to resit their SAT exams in secondary school. Furthermore, all secondary school children will have to sit English, maths, science, a language and either geography or history at GCSE level.

Labour Manifesto:

• They aim to drive up standards with a focus on improving the quality of teaching, not on what schools are called. Every teacher will need to gain a qualified teacher status (QTS) to teach.
• They will introduce local oversight for all schools through a new Directors of School Standards in every local area. They will be required to monitor performance and intevene where necessary and also be responsible for commissioning new schools where there are a shortage of places.
• They will ensure that all young people study Maths and English until 18 years old and undertake work experience between 14-16 years old.

Liberal democrat manifesto:

• They aim to ensure that every child is taught by a trained teacher using a new, streamlined National Curriculum.
• They will see that every school is supported and challenged to become a good or outstanding school by establishing a new National Leadership Institute to promote high-quality leadership.
• They will aim to end illiteracy and innumeracy by 2025.

What KSOL would like to see:

Aron Dhunna, Managing Director at KSOL says:

“The model education system as promoted by the three main parties is far from ideal. While the parties have different agenda in regards to education, it is disappointing to see that they are not promoting an agenda that ring fences education from the political system.

“Education design and implementation should be free from political influence, however, it should have fixed funding for a parliament. Each education body should receive appropriate funding that is determined by a management body who oversees all disbursements. While being free of political influence, the body should recognise the benefits of schools designed for different streams of a child’s ability, including Comprehensives, Grammar and Academies.”

Sources:

www.labour.org.uk/issues/detail/higher-schools-standards

www.libdems.org.uk/education_children

www.conservatives.com/SecuringABetterFuture/EducationSystem.aspx

KSOL is an award-winning provider of Key Stage 2 education with over 10 of years experience teaching children. To find out more visit www.ksol.co.uk or call 01217336558.

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