23/11/2019
There are many 'hot topics' that we should consider when looking at who to vote for in the 2019 general election. Education is one that should be high on anyone's list of priorities.
So, where do the various political parties stand on education?
According to what I have found, the Tories have declared the following as their key priorities in respect of education.
£7.1bn a year more for schools in England by 2022-23;
£400m for further education and sixth formsIncrease starting salaries for teachers and overall teachers' salaries;
increase Ofsted inspection of 'outstanding' schools; and
£100m for testing a National Retraining Scheme for adults.
You would expect Labour to have bold and ambitious plans for education and I'm sure some will say that they do. However, it seems that others have more ambition. Labour's plans include:
the creation of a national education service, providing free education for life to all children and adults;
the promise of £7.2bn to enable scrapping of university tuition fees;
providing free school meals to all primary school children and reducing class sizes to under 30 for all five, six, and seven-year-olds;
the funding of 30 hours’ free childcare for all two to four-year-olds and £1bn for 1,000 new early years Sure Start centres;
a change to tax rules for private schools and consideration as to how they can be further integrated into a comprehensive education system.
The Liberal Democrats faced lots of criticism for their perceived betrayal of their 2010 election promise on university fees. This was, of course, completely unjust given that they were the junior partner of the coalition government and did not have the power to impose their will on the Conservatives.
Their pledges for education in the 2019 general election are:
to recruit 20,000 more teachers and increase funding for schools by £10.6bn a year by 2024/25;
an increase to the starting salaries for teachers to £30,000 and a guaranteed pay rise of at least 3% a year over the next Parliament;
free school meals for all primary school children, as well as those secondary school children whose families receive universal credit;
£14.6bn for 35 hours a week of childcare for all two to four-year-olds, and for working parents from when their children are nine months; and
the reinstatement of maintenance grants for the poorest university students.
The Independent Group for Change is only putting three candidates. forward for election on 12th December, so are highly unlikely to actually be able to influence anything the next government does. That said, their proposals do all seem to be quite reasonable and are:
the inclusion of financial literacy in the national curriculum;
a 20-week funded retraining sabbatical for anyone in need of a mid-career skills boost;
tax breaks to help those who have retrained with relocation costs if they're moving for a new job; and
tax breaks for successful employers who offer work placements to students about to leave school.
The Brexit Party has very limited pledges on education, as set out in their 'contract with the people' - which is effectively their manifesto. They include:
abolish student loan interest;
remove the target to push 50% of young people into higher education;
scrap the cumbersome Apprentice Levy and improve tax incentives for employers to take on genuine apprentices.
The Green Party have some quite ambitious pledges for education, although their chances of implementing them are clearly rather limited; unless we see a substantial switch towards Green Party candidates. They have pledged to:
increase funding by at least £4bn a year;
reduce class sizes to under 20 in the long term;
35 hours a week free childcare from the age of nine months;
£7.8bn to scrap university tuition fees;
write-off existing debt for graduates who have paid fees of £9,000 a year or more;
abolish Ofsted and restore local authority control over education
UKIP have never had an MP elected to theHouse of Commons and I'm not convinced this is going to change in December. However, their proposals are to:
encourage the establishment of new grammar schools as well as technical, vocational and specialist secondary schools;
scrap university tuition fees for Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – as well as and medicine, but only for those committed to working in the UK for five years;
reverse the introduction of LGBT-inclusive and sex and relationship education;
encourage fewer university students and more trade apprenticeships.
I'm sure that must people would see some merit in at least some of the stated aims of each party. Even UKIP and the Brexit Party, whose main focus is to drag us out of the EU and who have mostly shared lies, misleading or irrelevant information and xenophobic hate, have 'policies' which will be of interest to some who would not otherwise vote for them.
UKIP say they want to scrap university tuition fees for core subject areas, which has some merit. However, evidence of their xenophobia can be seen by their desire to wind back the clock on sex and relationship education. I have to admit that their suggestion about a reduction in the number of university students is an interesting one. The value of a university education has, I believe, been significantly eroded by Tony Blair's drive to encourage more young people to continue their education beyond school and college.
The Brexit Party also wish to reduce the push for greater numbers of university students, but only propose to remove interest from student loans rather than to remove them completely.
You cannot just pick the best from each party though and it seems, to me at least, that the best and most balanced offering is set out in the plans provided by the Liberal Democrats.
You can find out which political party best matches your own political views by clicking the 'I
Side With' link below.
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