21st December 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
There is no doubt that a major factor in the way many people will vote in May 2010 is the feeling about what the respective parties will promise and deliver once in power. Education was declared a priority by the Labour government elected under Tony Blair in 1997, but in reality there has not been the dramatic improvement that many hoped for in the last 12 years.
The Conservatives are now placing education as a higher priority than ever before, and have made some radical changes to their promises on how education in UK should be organised. This is the party who attempted to centralise education, creating a National Curriculum, and removing autonomy from teachers and schools. The Tories now say that their government will give teachers “more freedom”, something which teaching unions have long been asking for.
However, it is not only reform which voters will use to decide on whom to follow, but also spending, and this is an area where Labour appear to be ahead. The Chancellor’s pre-budget speech promised that spending on schools will continue to rise above inflation. He didn’t promise as much on other areas of education, with increases on teachers’ salaries capped at 1% between 2011 and 2013, but Cameron has not made such firm pledges, and has only guaranteed spending on the NHS and international development.
The decision for many people seems to be whether to trust that the Conservatives reforms will effectively improve education at a grass-roots level, or hope that continued Labour spending will eventually produce the results we’ve all been hoping for since 1997.
Reported on guardian.co.uk, 15th December 2009.