Manifesto in the making

Increase in education spending Raise standards in secondary schools More specialist schools More city academies Increase spending on IT Improve school sports facilities Targets for English, maths and IT for 14 year olds At least 38% pupils to gain 5 GCSEs New targets for English and maths for 11 year olds Improve adult literacy Nursery places for all three year olds Repair crumbling schools

The �2bn in extra education spending plans detailed at the conference was not for the current parliament - but was projected forwards beyond the hurdle of the next election for the years 2002-2004.

And the targets set for raising standards and increasing nursery places were again not for the current term of office - but were for a government that has still to be elected.

So what is this likely to mean for the manifesto on which the Labour Party will fight the next election?

First, the prime minister made clear that education would remain the "passion of this government" - promising in his speech to conference that education would receive an increase in funding.

Also in the running?

Cut class sizes for 7 to 11 year olds Extra financial support for poorer students Extra incentives to recruit more teachers

"Line one of the contract in the next manifesto will be a promise to increase the share of our national wealth spent on education in the next parliament," said Mr Blair.

And that extra funding is likely to be targeted at pushing up standards in secondary schools - which are seen not to have improved as rapidly as primary schools, where the government has focused much of its attention.

Driving this improvement in secondary schools will be initiatives to shake up the comprehensive system - with the expansion of the specialist school scheme and the setting up of the first "city academies".

Mr Blair announced that by 2004 there would be 1,000 specialist schools in England - an increase on previous plans to have 800 such schools.

David Blunkett would turn his attention to secondary schools in a second term

This would mean that more than one in four schools will have specialist status - which allows them extra funds to provide advanced teaching in either technology, sport, modern languages or the arts.

The government's enthusiasm for such schools has been fuelled by their success in raising standards - with specialist schools racing up exam league tables faster than any other type of secondary school.

There is also likely to be further support for city academies, which are to be centres of excellence within deprived areas - in the latest attempt to find a way of breaking the cycle of poverty and educational failure.

Targets

In the government's current term, there has been much emphasis on target setting in primary schools - used as a way of measuring the impact of initiatives to raise standards.

This is going to be extended into secondary schools - with targets for 14 year olds and the setting of minimum targets for the numbers of pupils gaining five GCSEs.

In its spirit of modernisation, the government has promoted the use of information technology in schools - and the prime minister this week announced a further �710m for the online learning network, the National Grid for Learning.

A much larger sum, �5.7bn, is to be spent between 2002 to 2004 on repairing school buildings, the education secretary announced this week - but this total includes personal finance initiative credits and borrowing approvals for local authorities.

With so much already announced, the government will still be expected to produce some more headline-catching promises.

The drive to cut class sizes - a voter-friendly commitment from the last election -might be extended to the older primary school children, once targets for five to seven year olds have been achieved.

And there will be speculation about how the government might soften the blow of tuition fees and student borrowing for young people entering higher education.