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PM promises 'radical' school reforms
The prime minister has promised "very radical" reforms when the government unveils its education plans later this week.
Taking questions from senior MPs on Tuesday, Tony Blair denied that his administration had "run out of steam".
Ahead of a keynote speech and a five-year blueprint on schools to be published this week, he argued that new policies are set to revitalise the secondary system.
Blair said it was "completely wrong" to suggest that ministers had backed off from reform of the 14-19 curriculum.
He urged the liaison committee members to await the new blueprint and the Tomlinson review of exams due in the autumn.
But the premier said providing "choice" between and within schools would be the main driver of change and means of driving up standards.
Blair fleshed out what he feels the latest political buzzword means for his government.
"Choice is different in education than it is in health... and meaningless unless the capacity is there," he said.
"You have got to combine choice with expanding capacity and raising standards," Blair claimed.
"It's why I don't believe that you can have a free-for-all on schools. I think you need freedom for schools but not a free-for-all."
Choice
The prime minister rejected a suggestion that choice would benefit "well informed" middle class parents more than poorer families.
"It is very important that when parents come to decide... that there are a range of good schools for them to choose from," he argued.
"I think that this is not limited to people of a certain income. I think that many working class parents feel exactly the same. They want their children to do better," he added.
"In so far as possible you have got to be able to say to the parent, if that school is not the standard you require, there is another school you can go to," he added.
But Blair said Labour would not abandon failing schools to closure, preferring to work with them to improve standards.
He also promised a new push towards providing skills training for pupils.
The prime minister claimed that the biggest cause of underachievement in secondary schools is 14-year-olds "who don't want to go down the academic route".
"Increasingly young people are looking for very high quality vocational training," he said.
"We need to put the same emphasis on raising vocational standards as we have on the academic side," Blair added.
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