Fear for your children's education under the Tories

[MissM]

Ed Balls' letter to Michael Gove today

This is the end of huge amounts of hard work by committed professionals in the education sector with the best interests of children at heart. Vote Tory for higher teenage pregnancy rates, financial mismanagement and boring teaching.

TBH, I'm so downhearted about the mess the education system is in that the only people I trust to educate my DCs are myself and DH.

yes league tables result in endless teaching to the test. the whole Labour policy of filling in forms and benchmarking and judging has got to be cut back and some general common sense and localised management reinstated.

amazing how a govt which is supposed to promote social mobility has got it so wrong. amazes me how everyone loves to bash the Tories on some ridiculous reverse snobbery charge about eton toffs etc rather than taking a step back and thinking about the practical implications of each party's policy. (not on this thread, but plenty around on MN and anywhere else you want to look).

Slightly off at a tangent, but in response to another poster, I thought teenage pregnancy rates were significantly down in the last decade or so.

see www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/resources-and-practice/IG00200/ but I've read it elsewhere too.

oh yes and while we're at it, how about a Labour govt that introduced tuition fees for university? no point having a 50% target for those going on university (thus lowering standards again) but then not enabling bright but low-income children to afford it? And if you can afford it, is a degree even worth it when standards are dropping so much? Crazy mixed up policy borne out of yet more social meddling.

They need to get rid of SATS, it costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year to administrate and it demoralises pupils, teachers and parents.

I almost hope that dumbing down continues because ds1 might get some gcses and a levels that way.

Ed Balls should really be hung,drawn and quartered for what he hasn't achieved over his long drawn out tenure!

re "Ed Balls' ... long drawn out tenure"

Would you believe, he is now the longest-serving Education Secretary (or equivalent title) of this Govt having served almost 3 years.

perhaps if there was consistency in Ministers, there would have been more progress in policy. Who've we had? David Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Charles Clarke, Alan Johnson ... anyone else?

I wish that they would all get on and let the schols teach, rather than have yet more initiatives.

Jesus! It's a total farce isn't it! It would be nice if someone who actually came from an education background took the post and could bring a bit of progress.

Blunkett was a total disgrace, the man didn't even have children how can he possibly have known anything?

I have always been peed off by voter apathy, and also just voting according to whatever crap the media is shoving down our throats. this is quite rife among my age group (I'm 23) - IME anyway.

So I find it really quite depressing that I haven't a clue who to vote for, overall. I've totally lost trust, and a lot of it is what's happened to schools. But it's totally against my principles not to vote.

I can see us home-educating if things haven't improved by the time DS1 is due to start secondary. Of course it could be virtually ilegal by then, which will add to the excitement somewhat.

Think I'm turning into a Tory - and Labour have driven me to it. What happened to the great thinkers of the Left?

Ed Balls... he makes me want to cry actually .

Fear for your children's education under Labour too - look what a frickin' cock-up they've made

that's a marketing letter full of politicians crap

the bean-counters have already cocked up education

Everyone wants what suits them. When it comes to things like this, it's our own families that count and not other peoples. How many of us, in truth would like to send our kids to a school where we had so little in common with the other children as to make it seem like another planet?

I couldn't explain easily what a 'good education' means. It would be nice to think that schools are full of teachers who love their subject, captivate their audience and want to communicate what they know. Like any other profession, there are good teachers and mediocre ones. Politics gets in the way.

Sorry, OP, but that was an unbelievably facile statement and it's been fairly well demolished in the replies. I fear just as much, if not more, for my DCs' education under Labour as under any other party. GoingPostal, I think you have it spot-on with your comments regarding social mobility and inverse snobbery...

Anyone remember Assisted Places? I knew a kid who was subsidized by the Tory Government to go to boarding school and they (i.e. taxpayer) paid his fees of £20,000 a year . Seems to me that this could have funded a teacher in the state sector and an infinitely better use of resources.

Under Labor, my 3 year old has access to free nursery place.

ilove But what have Labour done to specifically help the very bright but poor child? What happens to those kids now? Without assisted places or grammar schools, and with no access to a 'leafy suburb' comprehensive they are destined for low performing schools with insuffecient bright peers and limited GCSE options. How does Ed Balls justify that?

good God, ilovemydogandmrobama, which boarding school cost £20,000 12 years ago??

jackstarbright, Ed Balls would doubtless say that grammar schools and assisted places are elitist. Labour did abolish the Assisted Places scheme when they took government. Diane Abbott voted for its abolition and then sent her son to private school. Ed Ball's father campaigned for the abolition of grammar schools in his area back in the day and then guess what? Sent Balls Junior to private school. Gotta love the hypocrisy.

ilovemydog...
Well, I had an assisted place - shock horror, the daughter of a car mechanic got to go to an independent school. My education cost less than what the LEA would have paid for my place at the local comp so it actually saved taxpayers' money. The subsequent uplift in my income has resulted in increased tax paid by myself that more than repays the debt, even if we forget that it saved the LEA money.
I very much doubt that the kid that you knew was 'subsidised to the tune of £20k p.a' because a) the scheme only covered day fees and thus the school, i.e. other fee paying parents, subsidised the boarding fees, and b) no independent school was charging £20K for day fees when the scheme was axed by the Labour party in 1997.

Agree with many posters on many issues. It is the lack of social mobility through good state education that really bothers me most. It is shameful that Labour has allowed that to get worse and worse.

Bob Are you suggesting that I am making this up?

I am!

You are saying that I am lying about this?

No, I think you have been mistaken as to who was subsidising the boarding element.

OK, enlighten me. What I know is that his mother said that the government was paying his fees and the local council contributed which ended up being £20,000. The family paid his uniform and a few extras such as trips outside school time.

I can't see how an assisted place though would have, 'saved the LEA money...'