Ahead of the UK general election tomorrow (Thursday 12 December) we’ve taken a look at the party manifestos and picked out some key education points to understand how proposed policies might impact on Jesmond’s schools and students.

Current state of education in the UK 

A manifesto analysis published last week by research organisation the Education Policy Institute claimed that “the school system in England is underpinned by a system of accountability in which schools are compared through performance tables and Ofsted inspections.” It suggests that new education policies must “recognise that an autonomous school system needs robust and intelligent accountability systems to help drive improved outcomes.” The report’s conclusions included:

• Removal of published information about individual schools could lead to a fall in school standards 
• Abolition of formalised testing risks introducing biased assessments by gender, ethnicity, special educational needs and socio-economic factors 
• Lower Ofsted ratings in schools are associated with higher rates of teachers moving to other schools, or leaving the profession altogether 

So, in light of those warnings, what are the main parties proposing?

Labour 

Labour says it is committed to improving education for all UK school children. It plans to: 

• Invest £25 billion in schools over three years
• Recruit 20,000 more teachers and ensure that they have more time for lesson planning and professional development
• Provide a 5% pay rise in April 2020 for teachers and support staff
• Limit class sizes to 30 pupils
• Replace Ofsted with a new body to increase improvements to standards 
• Close the funding gap for children with special educational needs and disabilities
• Review the national curriculum and ensure it covers subjects such as black history and the Holocaust
• Reverse cuts to the Pupil Premium, a fund of more than £2 billion to support disadvantaged students
• Invest £7 billion in school safety, including installing sprinklers 
• Introduce VAT on private school fees
• Provide free school meals for all primary school pupils
• Abolish key stage one and two SATs to refocus on “supporting pupil progress”

Conservatives

The Conservatives say “Every child should have the chance to succeed in life.” They intend to: 

• Invest £14 billion in schools
• Invest £10 million in national “behaviour hubs”, which enable schools with an outstanding behaviour culture to work closely with other schools and drive improvement 
• Ensure that all schools receive regular inspections to improve standards
• Increase teacher salaries to £30,000 by 2022-23
• Fund increased contributions into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme 
• Deliver more school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities
• Invest in arts, music and sport
• Increase the number of Institutes of Technology in England to 20
• Provide £400 million for education of 16 to 19-year-olds
• “Back heads and teachers on discipline”

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats argue that accessible education for all is an important equaliser. They say they will:

• Reverse cuts to education funding and invest an extra £10 billion per year
• Recruit 20,000 more teachers
• Reduce class sizes to 2015 levels with an “emergency cash injection”
• Introduce a “curriculum for life” in state-funded schools that would include personal, social and health education, financial literacy, environmental awareness, first aid and emergency lifesaving skills, mental health education, citizenship and age-appropriate relationships and sex education
• Replace Ofsted with a new Inspector of Schools
• Improve the quality of vocational education
• Replace performance tables with a broader set of indicators about pupil and teacher wellbeing, not just academic attainment
• Abolish the English Baccalaureate as a performance measure
• Allow local authorities to open new Community Schools, while opposing any future expansion of grammar schools

Green Party 

The Green Party believes that “every young person is entitled to access an excellent education, regardless of their socio-economic background”. It intends to: 

• Ensure that schools partake in energy audits and teach students about the environment in a practical manner
• Promote a comprehensive system of local schools that offer mixed-ability teaching and are staffed by qualified teachers
• Bring academies and Free Schools into the local authority system
• Oppose the current government’s privatisation and commercialisation of schools
• Introduce children to academic learning when they are six 
• Provide free nurseries and early years education 
• Introduce an inclusive youth service (Youth Provision) for all between the ages of 11 and 20
• Replace the national curriculum with a set of “learning entitlements”, including emotional literacy and wellbeing, social skills and physical wellbeing 
• Create learning environments that are “free from fear and the sense of failure”
• Scrap external SATS exams and the year one Phonics Test
• Encourage schools and colleges to set up Parent Forums or Parent Councils to enhance accountability
• Oppose new grammar schools 
• Provide more health checks in schools 
• Implement stringent anti-bullying policies to protect vulnerable children 

UKIP 

The UK Independence Party manifesto is focused on making the UK “self-sufficient in skills”. The party would:

• Use “successful traditional teaching methods that focus on facts and excellence rather than post-modern, deconstructive and relativistic methods”
• Focus on teaching children “the basics” 
• Increase the Dedicated Schools Grant by £4 billion per year 
• Recruit an extra 30,000 teachers and reduce workloads to increase retention
• Encourage the establishment of new grammar schools
• Remove the cap on faith-based selection in faith schools
• Restore the Assisted Places programme, which has “helped over 80,000 poorer children go to private schools”
• End political correctness in schools and encourage children to think freely
• Repeal the law for the implementation of LGBT-inclusive relationships education in primary schools 
• Support “real trade” apprenticeships 

Brexit Party

The Brexit Party says manifestos have become a “set of vague promises” and says its “Contract with the People” is a set of deliverable policies. It says it will: 

• Invest in education to improve schools for young people 
• Remove the target to push half of young pupils into higher education
• Improve tax incentives for employers to take on genuine apprentices by scrapping the Apprentice Levy
• “Expand parental choice — academies and free schools have improved results”

For more information about the general election and voting, visit the Electoral Commission.