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Liberal Democrats in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and RossendaleCovering the Parliamentary Constituencies of (a) Rossendale & Darwen (b) Blackburn (c) Hyndburn |
Education - Liberal Democrats would make a REAL difference
April 11, 2005 7:54 PM
Michael Carr, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Rossendale & Darwen, who is himself a teacher, announced the Liberal Democrats top ten priorities for education.
Ten Things to achieve in Education and Skills
1 Quality for All, not Choice for the Few
2 A child centric; not institution or parent centric approach to education
3 Implementation of the Tomlinson proposals
4 Quality Schools, Locally - Choice as a positive option, not as a mechanism to avoid failure
5 Tackling the consequences of falling rolls
6 Workforce re-professionalisation, not remodelling
7 A workforce for the 21st century
8 Personalisation, freedom from the strait jacket of testing, targets and rigid curricula
9 League Tables which mean something
10 Equal and Fair Access to University
Here are our policies in a bit more detail:
Early Years (0-7); Choice and Flexibility Where it Counts
• The Maternity Income Guarantee - £170 per week for the first six months; making parenting a priority and giving mothers real choice
• Child and Working Tax Credit Reform to increase help with childcare
• Workforce Training - Quality Early Years Teachers
• 3500 extra Early Years Centres by 2010
• Extending free early years education to 20 hours per week
• Investment in Rural Children's Centres and rural satellite centres
• Cutting class sizes to 20 in Key Stage 1 and 25 at Key Stage 2; giving teacher more time with your child
• Scrapping SATs at 7 - Testing for Purpose not Government Statistics
Development Stage (7-14) Challenging failure - Creating opportunity
•Scrapping SATs at 11 - Testing for purpose
• Wrap around care from 8am to 6pm
• Cutting junior class sizes to 25; 21,000 extra teachers
• A single joined-up admissions system for secondary schools, at a local level
• Teachers qualified in core subjects
Specialist Stage (14-19); Flexible solutions for individual needs
• Tomlinson - fundamentally reforming the secondary curriculum with courses of study that both stretch the most able and remain relevant to those who struggle with basic skills with a core literacy, numeracy and ICT requirement and business at the heart of the vocational curriculum
• Teachers qualified in core subjects
• A commitment to make funding fair: closing the course funding gap between school 6th forms and colleges.
• Investing in a Building Colleges for the Future Programme - implementing plans to invest in modern high quality college facilities
Post 19
• Free tuition for all adults who do not have a first Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent)
• Free tuition for all adults, aged 20-24, who do not have a first Level 3 (A-level or equivalent) qualification
Higher Education
• No top up fees, no fees, fair grants - a place at university based on ability to learn not ability to pay.
What would you like to do next?
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