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 | | Thursday, 2 May, 2002, 21:47 GMT 22:47 UK Schools policy 'like ad campaign'  Mr Willis says Labour seeks attention-grabbing headlines
What's Education Secretary Estelle Morris's biggest worry? - What Tony Blair is going to say on the radio and television. Or so says the Liberal Democrats' education spokesperson, former head teacher Phil Willis, who says that Labour's education policy for the last five years has been disrupted too often by "policy grenades from 10 Downing Street". While he commends the good intentions of the current education secretary and her predecessor David Blunkett, he says that decisions over education have too often been blown off course by the need for attention-grabbing headlines. As an example this week, he points to the proposal to put police in schools to tackle truancy. Rather than taking a long-term, systematic approach to tackling a deep-rooted problem, Mr Willis says the government opts for a gimmick to please "middle England". "Five years ago, education was seen as the driver of economic and social progress, it was coupled with reducing child poverty. "But in practice, this government has been about pleasing focus groups and education has been reduced to a series of targets and tick boxes." TV advertising He also accuses the government of running education policy "like a television advertising campaign, something promised, something announced, something re-announced". This has left a legacy of cynicism among teachers, he says. "I've been involved in education since 1963 - there have been good times and bad times, but I've never seen a time when there has been so much cynicism."
The cut in class sizes has helped primary schools and he says there is more funding in schools than before 1997. The most significant measure introduced in the past five years could prove to be the provision of free, part-time pre-school places for all three and four year olds. Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, he is against the primary school system of tests, targets and league tables, promising that a Liberal Democrat administration would scrap the school league tables. And instead of tests for every pupil in every primary school, he suggests a process of sampling to measure the quality of learning across the country. Teacher shortages But the spectre that is haunting Labour's ambitions for education remains the shortage of teachers - and he says the government has failed to grasp the nettle of overhauling recruitment. He calls for the scrapping of the Teacher Training Agency and a shift towards a more localised approach to training, which would allow education authorities greater flexibility in training and recruiting according to their needs. Looking back, he argues that the last five years have been a lost opportunity to create a more imaginative and innovative system - and the failure to recruit and retain teachers will be remembered as "disgraceful". | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Education stories now:  Links to more Education stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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