Education
STANDARDS
One in three eleven-year-olds leaves school unable to write properly.
44,000 children left school last year without a single GCSE.
The number of failing schools has risen by nearly a third in the last year.
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
A million children play truant every year. Labour promised to cut truancy by
a third - instead it has risen by a third.
There is an assault on a teacher every seven minutes.
31 per cent of teachers considering leaving the profession cited poor pupil
behaviour as one of their reasons.
Appeals panels overrule head teachers on expulsions in one in five cases,
returning disruptive pupils to school.
CHOICE
93,000 parents made appeals in one year against the school their child was
allocated by the Local Education Authority. Only 24 per cent were upheld.
BUREAUCRACY
The Government sends schools on average 12 pages of paperwork for every
school day.
There are now more external controls and targets than there are days in the
school year.
130,000 more secondary school pupils are now in classes with more than 30
pupils.
TOP-UP FEES
Labours top-up fees, which they promised not to introduce in their 2001
election manifesto, mean that average student debt will rise to around
£25,000. Students from poorer backgrounds will be charged fees for the first
time.
CONSERVATIVE ACTION
On the first day of a Conservative Government, we will set out plans to give
head teachers the power to expel disruptive pupils.
Within the first week, we will set out our programme to abolish the
restrictions which stop good schools expanding and new ones opening, as well
as centrally-set targets for schools.
Within the first month, we will include in the Queens Speech a Bill to give
parents the opportunity to choose the best school for their children.
Conservatives will increase spending on schools by a third during the next
Parliament, from £47 billion in 2005-06 to £62 billion by 2009-10.
Conservatives will increase overall school capacity by 600,000 places, so
that parents have the Right to Choose which school to send their child.
Conservatives will open up the education system to new entrants. If an
independent body be it private or charitable provides schooling which
meets our standards and costs the same per pupil as a maintained school, that
school will be eligible for government funding.
We will abolish AS levels, retain and strengthen the A-level and introduce
tough external assessment of exam standards.
Conservatives will abolish top-up fees access to higher education should
depend on merit, not the ability to pay.
Promoted by G A Nichols on behalf of Andrew Turner, both of 58 The Mall, Carisbrooke Road, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1BW and by
Island Webservices, 2 Highwood Lane, Rookley, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, PO38 3NN
