Improving our schools system is the most important thing we can do to make opportunity more equal and to address our declining social mobility. Britain is slipping down the world league tables in Maths and English, and violence in the classroom is a serious problem. Truancy is at record levels, having risen by more than a third despite Labour spending over £1 billion to combat it. Standards are falling, and there is a growing gap between the richest and the poorest. We can’t go on like this.
The reason we have fallen behind is that schools are controlled by politicians and bureaucrats with the wrong ideas. They have undermined the power of teachers to keep order and devalued the curriculum and exam system.
A Conservative government will give many more children access to the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off: safe classrooms, talented and specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and exams, and smaller schools run by teachers who know the children’s names.
To make real progress we need to implement the kind of reforms that have worked so well in countries like the USA, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere, based on increased choice and accountability, rigorous standards and greater prestige for the teaching profession. By making these changes we will improve standards for all pupils and close the attainment gap between the richest and poorest.
You can read our draft manifesto on schools in full using the document reader below, or alternatively click here to download a copy in PDF format.