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.

Glinda, not sure if the newbie, Conservative Central Office thing was aimed at me - I've been arouund for a fair while - usually on the Property forum though. I'm normally a voyeur on this topic but the Assisted Places comment narked me!

Given that there are teachers on this thread, you are being really patronising if you think we are not aware what we teach and at secondary, I bet many of us teach PSHE - I did every week. I also imagine many like me also taught Sex Ed and financial management to KS3 and 4, so we were already teaching the non-statutory stuff.

I would argue that there is no need to be teaching financial stuff to 5 year olds, they don't need to know if a salary is paid net or gross, but at KS4 it has relevance. The same with sex ed - teach it by all means, but later.

I'm not sure I can ever forgive the Tories for my (free) grammar school ed, my free university tuition or my maintenance grant.

Skihorse

ROFL

Skihorse Those nasty Tories eh?

The idea that the state has any direct role in educating our brightest children is apparently 'elitist'. And according to the NUT earlier this week grammar schools were part of a discredited system. No wonder social mobility is declining!

Skihorse Those nasty Tories eh?

The idea that the state has a direct role in educating our brightest children is apparently 'elitist'. According to the NUT earlier this week grammar schools were part of a discredited system. No wonder social mobility is declining!

So what is the Tory policy on education? Anyone?

There have always been, and always will be - grants and bursaries for the most academically gifted students from any socio-economic background.

Riven, if only Labour had been in power more than a couple of weeks, maybe they could've reversed such a mean decision and reinstated grants/free tuition!

Quite skihorse. The student loans came in in 1992 (?). I think the Labour party have had a few years to reverse that one.

I think the Tories will allow University fees to rise. Chris Patten (Vice Chancellor of Oxford) has made comments in that direction. My view is that there are far too many University places though so undergraduate degrees have been dumbed down and discredited. Now everyone goes to university and the qualification is becoming ever more worthless. I think the old Poly 'universities' should be shut and resources focussed on an unashamedly elite group of the old universities.

Allowing fees to double to cover the true cost but quid pro quo, forcing lecturers/professors back into the lecture hall (not using their PhD student to give the lecture), paying lecturers better, cutting the number of students allowed on each course to limit class/lecture size, and raising entry requirements would restore the quality of UK university education.

Riven is right though. The old student grant system has to be restored so that good students regardless of background can still go to university is essential. A elite but well funded university system for the very best students is what we used to have and what we still need.

We also need very good voctional courses in technical colleges that are embedded in and responsive to the workplace.

Riven, do you want inclusion to the exclusion of all other avenues? I would hope that it is tied to the needs of the child, so if they would be better in a specialised SN school (whatever that need is) they can have a place, or if they can cope in mainstream they can go there.

ilove - summary of Tory Education policy. It is from the Telegraph (sorry) - but a good summary. They've also done Labour and Lib Dem.

Will try and post this just the once, this time .

ABetaDad Many of the ex-poly's focus on courses not often found (in great numbers anyway) in the more traditional universities. e.g nursing, chartered surveying tourism, business studies and art and design. They are normally very popular with employers and often have very high employment rates post graduation. In the 'knowledge based' economy which we are meant to be achieving (given we can't realistically survive on manufacturing, mining and agriculture ) we do need a relatively large proportion of our population to reach a high educational level.

Thanks jack. Summaries are good

ilove

posted it earlier on the thread but here's the Tory draft education manifesto

I'm going to read the draft manifesto (thanks for posting the link) but I'm particular interested in the Tory plans for HE - so lucky for me the discussion has taken that turn. Is that included in the above manifesto, does anyone know (the url says 'schools' so not sure it is)?

What has actually been said about Tory policy on HE? I gather DC said this morning on the Today prog that he favoured higher tuition fees. I'm not very happy with that, but at the same time I can guess it's quite likely to happen with Labour too. TBH I am hacked off with Mandelson and his 'let business dictate how it should work' approach to HE, but I am unsure that the Tories will be much different, so I'm really looking for the key points of difference - if any - between them.

Hijack - Riven did you see you were in the Economist?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/943980-Riven-in-the-Economist

'Ensuring that every child leaves primary school confident in their literacy and numeracy skills'
HOW are they going to do that?They have NO idea. What are they going to do to make sure that children with SEN leave school'confident in their Lit and num skills.' You cannot just wave a magic fecking wand or will children to learn by getting them to recite their times tables.

tories also with wishy washy ideas
'Establishing a simple reading test at the age of six'
...because teachers aren't able to use a reading test already?
Overhauling Key Stage 2 tests' FFS
I think Lib Dem manifesto is best but they won't get in.

Cornsilk The LibDem idea for a 'pupil premium' appears easy enough to impliment and might not be too expensive. I think smaller class sizes (particulary in reception / KS1) would be worthwhile. Maybe if we get a hung parliament???

On tuition fees this is worth a read: Why social justice demands higher tuition fees. From last week's Guardian. It made me think - though I'm still unsure .

Implement and particularly