University of Surrey Issues in Politics Today

1
University of SurreyIssues in Politics Today

• Education, Education, Education?
• Points for discussion arising from the
  Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat
  education policies, as presented in their
  manifestos for
• the 2005 General Election
• April 2005

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Key themes in all three manifestos

• Parental choice
• School discipline
• Educational standards
• Higher education funding
• Childcare and education

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Points for discussion

• There was a surprising degree of consensus
  amongst all three parties about the main issues
  they wanted to address.
• Why do you think this is?
• What has influenced this choice?
• Do you think this consensus had any effect on
  (a) political debate (b) peoples decisions
  about whether or not to vote? Why?

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Parental choice

• Conservative
• parents to have right to choose the school their
  child attends
• expansion of school places in best schools
• schools to become responsible for admissions
• parents able to send children, free of charge, to
  any independent school that offers a place at no
  more than cost of a state-funded school

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Parental choice (contd)

• Labour
• OFSTED to have new powers to respond to parental
  complaints
• diversity of schools to allow parents greater
  choice (e.g. all schools to become specialist,
  increase in number of Academies)
• Liberal Democrat
• more flexible curriculum for students aged 14,
  to give them greater choice of learning options

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Points for discussion

• Would these measures actually provide all parents
  with greater choice or do they favour some
  groups (e.g. the articulate middle class) over
  others?
• Is choice always a good thing? Can you think
  of any reasons why it might not be?
• Both Conservatives and Labour wanted to make
  greater use of the private sector - through
  independent schools. What are the advantages and
  disadvantages of doing this?

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School discipline

• Conservative
• heads to have full control over expulsions
• special Turnaround Schools for disruptive pupils
• Labour
• head teachers to have control of budget for
  out-of-school provision for disruptive pupils
• more dedicated provision for excluded and
  disruptive pupils
• continued use of parenting orders, fines and
  truancy sweeps to ensure parents get children to
  attend school

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School discipline (contd)

• Liberal Democrat
• smaller class sizes
• positive behaviour plans to be agreed by
  parents and pupils (and monitored externally)
• local education authorities Behavioural Support
  Units to tackle exceptional problems
• head teachers able to transfer pupils to other
  schools or special units

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Points for discussion

• Conservatives and Labour tended to focus on
  exceptional cases (i.e. the most disruptive
  pupils), while the Liberal Democrats focused on
  behaviour more generally.
• Do you think one approach is better than the
  other? Why?

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Educational standards

• Conservative
• marks to be published alongside grades
• targets for attainment to be scrapped
• the National Curriculum to be slimmed down

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Educational standards (contd)

• Labour
• literacy and numeracy programmes at primary
  school to be intensified extra time for maths
  and English at secondary school, for those who
  need it
• high quality tuition in the arts, music, sport
  and languages at primary school
• every school to become an independent specialist
  school large increase in number of Academies

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Educational standards (contd)

• Liberal Democrat
• reduction in level of external testing
  compulsory tests at 7 and 11 replaced with
  sampling against national standards as a result,
  teachers given more time to teach
• teachers to assess pupils regularly and give
  feedback to parents
• all core subjects at secondary school to be
  taught by suitably qualified teachers

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Points for discussion

• Here, the parties differed in their approach to
  targets for attainment and formal testing.
• What impact do you think targets have - on
  schools, teachers, parents, pupils?
• Conservatives and Labour argued that having a
  greater diversity of schools would drive up
  standards, while the Liberal Democrats emphasised
  the importance of the local comprehensive. Which
  approach do you think would be more effective?

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Higher education funding

• Conservative
• tuition fees to be abolished instead, higher
  interest to be charged on student loans
• access regulator to be abolished
• universities to build up individual endowments
• Labour
• up-front tuition fees to be replaced with fees
  (up to 3000) to be paid after graduation grants
  for poorer students

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Higher education funding (contd)

• Liberal Democrat
• all tuition fees to be abolished grants to help
  poorer students with cost of living
• funded by new 50 per cent tax on incomes over
  100,000

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Points for discussion

• Here, the three parties had quite different
  policies.
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
  three different approaches?
• For each approach who would be the main
  beneficiaries?
• Do you think the three parties have different
  views about the role of higher education in our
  society? If so, what are they?

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Childcare

• Conservative
• more flexible maternity pay (paid over 9 months
  or a higher amount over 6 months)
• 50 per week for each child under 5 for childcare
  (for families receiving working tax credit)
• network of after-school clubs

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Childcare (contd)

• Labour
• expansion of out-of-school provision
• 3500 Sure Start Childrens Centres
• more generous Working Tax Credit to help pay for
  childcare
• increase in paid maternity leave (to 9 months
  from 2007 - with aim of 12 months by end of
  parliament)

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Childcare (contd)

• Liberal Democrat
• extension of before and after school provision to
  8am-6pm for all children
• 3500 Childrens Centres
• Maternity Income Guarantee will raise maternity
  pay for the first six months

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Points for discussion

• As for some of the previous issues, there was a
  considerable degree of consensus between the
  parties.
• Why do you think this is?
• Why has childcare become such an important issue
  now?
• How does it affect other policy areas?
• Which groups of people would be most advantaged
  by these policies? Which would be most
  disadvantaged?

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To conclude..

• Now that you have had a chance to think about
  what the three main political parties consider to
  be the most important educational issues
• (i) Do you agree with them? Are these the most
  important issues we should be thinking about?
• (ii) Is anything missing? What would you include
  if you were writing your own manifesto?

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Further resources

• Conservative manifesto
• http//www.conservatives.com/tile.do?defmanifesto
  .uk.page
• Labour manifesto
• http//www.labour.org.uk/fileadmin/manifesto_13042
  005_a3/flash/manifesto_2005.swf
• Liberal Democrat manifesto
• http//www.libdems.org.uk/party/policy/manifesto.h
  tml