In remarks earlier today David Cameron promised to lead a change in teaching methods to ensure "the basics are taught properly". He emphasised: "Changing the curriculum to ensure a proper focus on the core subjects of English, Maths, Science, History and Modern Languages; changes to exams – including an end to key-word marking; and changes […]
At this lunchtime’s Political Studies Association awards event Mark Gill of MORI presented the results of a survey of nearly 300 academics. We learnt that Gordon Brown was rated the best Chancellor and Norman Lamont the worst. Perhaps most interesting (but unsurprising) was the finding that academics clearly leaned to Gordon Brown when asked whether […]
A report by Iain Duncan Smith’s Social Justice Policy Group has revealed that white working class boys are performing least well at school: "They do markedly worse than other groups from similarly poor backgrounds, scoring only a quarter of the exam passes of teenagers of Chinese origin and fewer than half the exam passes of […]
There have been a number of accounts in the press about Alan Johnson’s humiliating U-turn on faith schools and how it has hurt his leadership ambitions. One in The Observer mentions that 39 concerned Labour MPs met the Education Secretary last Thursday and some warned that their seats were at risk from unhappy Catholic parents. […]
According to reports in today’s newspapers (including The Telegraph) former Tory Chairman Kenneth Baker is determined to press ahead with his plans for new faith schools to be obliged to take up to 25% of pupils from outside their designated religion. Only on Thursday did Education Secretary Alan Johnson perform, according to Lord Baker, the […]
Few Tories question David Cameron’s much-needed attempts to put environmentalism and social justice at the heart of the Tory mission. Much more questionable has been his decision to stop talking about some of the issues most associated with the Tories in recent years. 46% of Tory members recently surveyed by ConservativeHome agreed that "David Cameron’s […]
Lord Bruce-Lockhart, Chairman of the Local Government Association and former leader of Kent’s Conservative Council, has raised eyebrows by saying state schools in ethnically diverse areas should admit a proportion of pupils according to their ethnicity. His reasoning was that: "Children start off being colour-blind and this is a wonderful thing. But if you have […]
After last week’s ‘Jamiegate’ affair the Tories’ higher education education spokesman is back in the news for the right reasons. According to The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson wants the most successful students at universities to be given cash rewards as both an incentive for students to work harder and to discourage universities from offering so […]
Earlier this week, in his Conference speech, David Cameron welcomed an initiative by the Church of England to open up their own schools to a more diverse range of pupils: "Today, a new generation of Muslim schools is emerging. If these schools are to be British state schools, they must be part of our society, […]
David Cameron on Sunday: "We need to understand that cultural change is worth any number of government initiatives. Who has done more to improve school food, Jamie Oliver, or the Department of Education?" Boris Johnson today: "If I was in charge I would get rid of Jamie Oliver and tell people to eat what they […]
One of the issues raised by Gordon Brown during his interview on this morning’s Today programme was skills. Britain’s ‘skills crisis’ is addressed in an important speech this lunchtime by Tory education frontbencher John Hayes. These are some of the worrying facts highlighted by Mr Hayes: Even if the Government were to meet its targets […]
David Cameron has chosen state education for his children according to the London Evening Standard (above). We already know that Mr Cameron is a great admirer of the care that the NHS has given to his son, Ivan and so Mr Cameron has passed Stephen Pollard’s Clause IV test. Back in August Mr Pollard wrote: […]
The first vote on the Education Bill was passed comfortably by 458 votes to 115. Labour says 51 of its backbenchers rebelled, so it was the Conservative Party "wot won it" for Tony Blair. There has been a lot of commentary about this Bill being the beginning of the end for Blair. His demise will […]
David Cameron has this morning launched a Charter for Inner City Schools (a pdf of which is here). The Charter includes a suggestion that schools in ‘tough’ areas should enjoy the freedom to pay higher salaries to ensure teacher recruitment and retention. English language teaching, streaming and home-school contracts are also emphasised. The proposals will […]
Julian Brazier MP, writing for the socially conservative Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs, believes that more of the money spent on higher education should be targeted on halting the "pitiful collapse" in maths teaching in schools and the closures of university engineering, physics and chemistry departments. Mr Brazier, who is also a frontbench defence spokesman, […]