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Education
There are many easy sound-bites on education but few easy answers.
I have sat as a governor of my local secondary school for eight years and my wife has been chair of governors at the local primary.
What we have both concluded is that while the mantra of “trust the professionals” slips easily off the tongue, it leaves many questions unanswered.
I am all for schools becoming self governing but we have to recognise that there are many that simply do not have the local resources to draw on to allow that to happen.
Across vast swathes of the south, healthy, well adjusted children from supportive homes attend well run schools staffed by dedicated teachers overseen by active boards of governors drawn from the local community.
For these schools abolishing the LEAs, streamlining the national curriculum and the right to become self governing will create an explosion of creativity and excellence.
But for many this is just a dream.
If all the good, well supported schools become self governing, who will support the rest? What future is there for those that have to attend the failing schools?
In the US there are the Charter Schools, in Holland 50% of state education is provided privately, in the Scandinavian countries there are schemes that allow parents to draw state funds to run their own schools if they feel local schools are failing.
There is a place for elements of all of these approaches but we must recognise that the best schools are a tremendous resource in solving the problem. If we can offer extra funding to the best schools to look after those in failing schools, we will begin to find a solution. I believe this can and must be done.
More on the Conservative Party's thoughts on Schools can be found here. |
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