Kelly accuses Conservatives of being soft on standards
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has accused the Conservatives of being soft on education standards.
Highlighting Conservative plans to reduce the role of OFSTED, Ms Kelly said that the Conservatives would take the education system backwards: “Back to taking money out of the local schools most families use, to subsidise places at private schools. Back to selection and making a nonsense of parent choice. Back to going soft on standards of teaching and learning by slashing OFSTED”
Her comments came as Labour launched the education chapter of its general election manifesto.
Key pledges include expanding Sure Start, offering 15 hours of free nursery provision for all three- and four-year-olds, refurbishment of schools and extended opening hours, and giving schools three-year budgets.
On standards, the Labour leadership promised that there would be tougher measures for failing schools, a specialised diploma combining vocational education with GCSEs and A-Levels and a guaranteed place for every teenager in sixth form training or an apprenticeship.
Ms Kelly said that Labour would also ensure that parents had more power within schools. She said parents would be given more information through new school and pupil profiles and be given powers to trigger OFSTED reviews, and “getting the school to take on help or prompting a competition for an entirely new school where they are not happy with local standards.”
School discipline was also a focus, with Mrs Kelly saying that there would be “greater support for the authority of the classroom teacher – with zero-tolerance of low level disruptive behaviour and more control for schools over how they spend money on off-site provision for excluded pupils; and an expectation that parents will support the school when it comes down hard on the few children who do not behave, ignore the school rules – whether on homework or uniform – or play truant”.
But the Conservatives said that all of Labour’s promises had been heard before.
Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins, said: “More warm words from Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ruth Kelly about parental choice cannot wipe away the failure of the last eight years. Labour’s stewardship of education has become a byword for failure and incompetence with lower academic standards, deteriorating school discipline leading to utter despair among pupils, parents and teachers alike.
“How can we trust Labour with our children’s future when they cannot even agree a policy on the school leaving age? How can we trust Labour’s spending plans for schools and universities when they lie about ours? Think of a number and double it is Labour’s approach to running education. We deserve so much better.”
