To what extent have governments and political parties agreed on how best to raise educational standards in Britain since 1997?

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To what extent have governments and political parties agreed on how best to raise educational standards in Britain since 1997?

“Education, education, education” was how Tony Blair set out his priorities for office as Labour in their 1997 manifesto campaigned to put classrooms at the top of the political agenda thus education would be a ‘number one priority’. 12 years on and Gordon Brown’s ‘passion’ is for education. With the general election drawing near and the global recession taking a toll on public finances, there is a broad-spectrum of agreement on importance of raising educational standards whilst maintain equal opportunities for all both the fortunate and forgotten taken into consideration and career prospects for all. There is however different views on how these standards should be achieved.

Since 1997, New Labour has emphasised the importance of raising educational standards. It is now crucial to see how this can be sustained at a time of public spending cuts. All 3 main political parties are in consensus to raise these standards and for front line services to be protected. However where this funding should be injected is where parties differ. Labour has stated £2 billion will be cut from the school budget. A further 3000 senior staffs from heads, deputies and bureaucrats could be cut as schools become federations. This method is believed to save £250 million by reducing senior posts. The federation model too can save another £500 million. A further 10% could be cut on schools spending budget on equipments and facilities. However pressure group National Head Teachers Union (NHTU) opposes the federation proposals. The Conservatives and Lib Dems are in consensus to the belief that no cuts should be made. The Conservatives want more private involvement and more business involved whereas The Lib Dems intend to scrap measures such as the Child Trust Fund which pays out £500 million a year to place more money into maintaining standards. The parties too agree on rebuilding and refurbishing all schools to ensure hygiene is retained. All parties are persistent in that they do not want to see a wasted generation to poverty; unemployment and crime thus believe it is vital that hidden talents are unlocked. To help children from disadvantage areas again is a vital agreement to prevent social depravity. Both Labour and Conservatives are in consensus however it can be argued that the Conservatives recently shifted to this view and abandoned their traditional ideologies as they supported the middle class rich people more. The aim of improving behavior and raise an excellent school for children too is an area of agreement. All parties are in agreement to raise the leaving age to 18. Labour introduced a Behaviour Challenge to ensure all good schools have good discipline. This to a certain extent can be viewed similar with the Conservatives who alternatively have proposed a ‘troops to teachers’ scheme to get ex-soldiers to tackle indiscipline and improve leadership. The Lib Dems however wish to create a ‘pupil premium’ which pays schools more to take pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This extends school provision and smaller class sizes to 15 across the country.  They wish to introduce a universal entitlement to free childcare for all children from 18 months to when they start school so all children regardless of wealth have a fair start and this additional funding would be targeted towards those most in need of extra support. This goes some way to show that parties are in consensus within their aims but differ in applying these aims into practise.

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The 1988 Education Reform Act has had an insightful effect on schooling in Britain. The main provisions of the Education Reform Act were a national curriculum being introduced 4 key stages and league tables. This was brought in under by Margaret Thatcher. For government and parties it has opened areas of consensus where parties unite in agreement to improve but fluctuate on how these improvements should be made.  All parties are in consensus that the testing system needs to be revised. Labour and Lib Dems are in consensus to retain testing at the end of key stage 2. Labour ...

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