Conservatives set out education agenda

David Cameron has called for the introduction of setting by subject in all schools in a fresh bid to drive up educational standards.

The party leader signalled that an incoming Conservative government would be prepared to impose a setting by subject system in schools, and declared: "Every parent knows that children do best when they are engaged at the right level of ability.

 

"So I want to see setting in every single school."

 

But Cameron is continuing his break with past policy, instead putting the emphasis on "selection within schools rather than selection between schools".

 

Opposition Response: Liberal Democrats

 

Responding to David Cameron's setting out of Tory education plans, Liberal Democrat education spokesman Edward Davey MP said: "David Cameron himself wrote the Tory manifesto that contained pupil passports and a pledge to scrap tuition fees. In less than 12 months he has completely changed his mind. The only thing pupils and parents can be sure of is that the Tories can't be trusted.

 

"Extending selection by ability and backing fees proves the Tories are still more concerned with the prospects of the few at the expense of the many."

 

"Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign for the abolition of tuition fees, smaller class sizes, radical reform of the curriculum and better qualified teachers - policies that will improve the quality of education for all."

 

Stakeholder Response: NCPTA

 

A spokesperson for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA) told ePolitix.com: "Parents will be interested to learn more about the specific details of the proposals in the announcement but will remain keen to understand what the impact would be on their children’s education.

 

"Some children are already taught in set classes and this approach suits the learning styles of many.

 

"However, it may not be the best approach for all subjects and for all children.

 

"Parents will want their children taught in a way that suits both the subject being taught and the environment in which the learning is taking place.

 

"Equally, where it exists parents will and seek reassurance that the setting process is flexible and will allow their child to move form one set to another as their ability develops.

 

"Again the concerns of parents will be raised around the reference to parent choice.

 

"For many, reference to choice is not a clearly defined element of the decision about which school is right for their child.

 

"What parents do want is to be able to choose the most convenient school for their child confident that their child will receive a good education and that a good standard of education is available, to all, within every school.

 

"This would allow parents and their children to make a confident choice rather than pushing them into a very variable and complex selection process that encourages individual parents to seek out their route to secure a school place for their child."

 

 

StakeholderResponse: Advisory Centre for Education (ACE)

 

Chris Gravell, ACE’s policy officer, welcomed the Conservatives’ abandonment of support for grammar schools.

 

He said: "We wonder, however, what the strong evidence for the benefits of setting is.

 

"Teachers resist setting for good educational reasons.

 

"ACE has been concerned about this issue since the sixties, when our director was Brian Jackson, whose seminal work showed how bad streaming was for working-class pupils.

 

"Currently international comparisons show that countries that set the least have the highest performance.

 

"Once children are put in lower sets, their progress slows – they know they’re not being expected to do well, so they don’t.

 

"The UK’s main educational problem is its ‘long tail of underachievement’, which many attribute to schools focusing on the pupils who will get A* to C grades at GCSE.

 

"We’d rather see diverse approaches and routes to success.

 

"On trust schools, we remained concerned that parents will find life much more complex and vulnerable children will lose out if all secondary schools run their own admissions." 

 

Stakeholder Response: National Union of Students

 

Commenting on plans announced today by the David Cameron,Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "David Cameron’s commitment of no return to selection conceals the potential for increased selection.

 

"The existing facility for secondary schools to select up to 10 per cent of their intake by aptitude is a stalking horse for the Conservatives to return to selection by more subtle means than the 11-plus and without ever having to admit the move openly.

 

"Cameron needs to be very careful about prescribing more setting in secondary schools.

 

"Sensible grouping of pupils to tackle different levels of learning need already takes place in our secondary schools.

 

"Teachers use their professional judgement to set pupils appropriately depending on the children in question, the subject and the circumstances.

 

"Imposed and rigid forms of setting ignore such factors and the changing needs of pupils.

 

"Only the teachers in a school can know all the relevant information that needs to be taken into account. It cannot be known by any government in Whitehall."

 

 

Stakeholder Response: Disability Rights Commission

 

A spokesperson for the Disability Rights Commission told ePolitix.com: "If "no child is to be held back" under the Conservatives approach to education then the party will need to look at what can be done to tackle the major inequalities confronting disabled children and those with special educational needs in education. 

 

"In the past year the Conservatives have focused on a call for special schools to be kept open, yet the vast majority of the 400,000 disabled children in the UK do not attend special schools, nor would they be appropriate for them.

 

"Today’s disabled children and young people are the disabled adults of the future.  Disabled children, young people and their families should expect to enjoy equal rights, opportunities and choice. 

 

"However this is not currently the case, 24 per cent of disabled 16-24 year olds have no qualifications whatsoever, compared to 13 per cent of non-disabled people of the same age (an 11 per cent gap) and disabled 16 year olds are twice as likely to be out of work, education or training as their non-disabled peers (15 per cent compared to 7 per cent).

 

"We hope that tackling these inequalities will become a core concern of Conservative education policy and offer our expertise in devising practical solutions."

 

Stakeholder Response: Governetz

 

A spokesperson for Governetz said: "Amid the ever more strident clamour around the shrinking plains of the educational battlefield one can’t help recalling Kingsley Amis’ dictum that ‘more is worse’.

 

"The extent to which increased centralised control over how schools manage their curriculum, ethos and standards will ever palliate the besetting inadequacies of control exercised by Local Education Authorities is a moot point." 

 

"For many communities it’s the equivalent of being offered the choice between sustained anonymous carpet bombing from 40,000 feet or a determined insurgent campaign waged by fanatics armed with dangerous local knowledge."

 

"If parents and communities want better run schools that enable all pupils to reach their highest potential the answer can only lie in their jointly taking personal responsibility for setting high standards in curriculum, ethos and discipline."

 

"Successful schools are driven by teachers and parents determined not to settle for second best from either Whitehall or LEAs. 

 

"The main parties are both guilty of poor examination practice and should bear in mind the perennial advice to read the questions properly before attempting any answers." 

 

Stakeholder Response: The Hotel & Catering International Management Association (HCIMA)

 

"Whilst we applaud any initiative which may raise educational standards it would be reassuring to know that initiatives designed to raise standards are not restricted to academic but also applied to vocational education.

 

"Setting can be both a positive and negative force in terms of encouraging those with special aptitudes particularly where students develop interests or skills at differing stages in their development and this needs to be carefully considered before launching into a prescriptive policy that may not be supported by all educationalists.

 

"It is important that both government and opposition parties consider the implications of other current educational  policies which still seem to have a bias towards academic success rather than the creation of an environment where equal opportunity is provided to those individuals whose strengths lie craft or technical skills.

 

"It is essential that vocational education is encouraged particularly in areas where skills shortages are very apparent notably in the hospitality sector."