By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education reporter |
 Ruth Kelly's policies are aimed at Labour's heartland voters |
With the election battle beginning to reach biting point, what's the public mood on the doorsteps? "People are looking for a reason to vote Labour," says the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly.
It's an intriguing comment, implying both Labour's strengths and weaknesses. They think they have a strong story to tell � on the economy and investment in public services.
But there's a nagging fear that no one is listening - and that low turn-out could be a bigger threat than the Tories.
Investment in education is one of the biggest reasons which Labour hopes to give its supporters for making the effort to get to the polling station. It's a strong card which they hope will re-energise the doubters and provide tangible evidence of money well spent.
"People have seen a huge amount of progress since 1997. They've seen the investment in schools and the improvements in results. They've seen the new classrooms, the whiteboards, 28,000 more teachers and 105,000 more support staff," she says.
Back to educational basics
"Modern facilities are essential � and we'll be advertising the fact that every secondary and primary schools will be either be re-built or refurbished over the next 15 years to bring every school up to really world class standards."
The message to the wavering voter is: 'don't get distracted by Iraq, look at the school at the end of your road'.
 | EDUCATION INTERVIEWS |
And it's a message that's being aimed at their traditional support.
Many constituencies, particularly those in less well off areas, have fewer than a quarter of young people going to university - and Labour wants to talk about the nuts and bolts of vocational training and basic qualifications, rather than limiting the debate to A-levels and university admission.
So there will be election announcements promising a drive to get rid of the "drop-out culture", which has seen the United Kingdom with one of the worst staying-on rates in education beyond the age of 16 in the industrialised world.
"There will be a huge drive to ensure that nobody leaves school without a real grasp of literacy and numeracy. We'll be setting out proposals as to how we want to make that happen," she says.
This will seek to ensure that all school leavers have the "functional" skills of reading, writing and maths.
Staying-on at school
This will be about equipping young people with training for the modern workplace and getting more pupils to reach the benchmark of five good GCSEs.
"We'll be talking about our plans to make sure that everybody has the chance to study after the age of 16, in school, college or apprenticeships. So we'd expect to see a sharp increase in participation, ending the drop-out culture.
"We'll be getting rid of fixed points in the system. So you wouldn't necessarily be doing an exam at 16, after which, if you don't pass, you're out. You might take it when you�re ready at 17," she said.
Another grass-roots education issue, successfully seized upon by the Conservatives, has been bad behaviour in the classroom. And Labour wants to reclaim some of this territory.
"There is a real issue about low-level disruptive behaviour and we need to have a really clear, zero-tolerance approach.
"The problem at the moment is that there isn't a full range of options in schools," she says. There is a "nuclear option" of exclusion, but nowhere for badly-behaved pupils to go for "three hours or three days".
As such, there are plans for learning support units, either in school or elsewhere, where pupils could be sent for temporary stretches.
Getting parents involved
Labour will also be promising to give parents a bigger role in schools and in early years services.
"Where parents are involved, there can be a profound impact on outcomes in later life," she says.
|  We'll be talking about our plans to make sure that everybody has the chance to study after the age of 16, in school, college or apprenticeships. So we'd expect to see a sharp increase in participation, ending the drop-out culture |
On a practical level, she says improving school meals is a "fantastic example of where parents can be really important". And she promises parents that school meals will be "visibly improving" by next year.
Parents, as consumers, can have a different view of the school system than providers, such as teachers. And Ms Kelly's defence of city academies has seen her coming under fire from teachers' unions.
These non-fee charging, independent state schools, being built in deprived areas, are over-subscribed and are popular with parents, she says.
"I talked to a group of parents at the Mossbourne Academy recently � and they were so enthusiastic about what their children were experiencing and the chances they were being given.
"Anyone who goes there will realise that is a representative sample of the Hackney population � and they didn�t have that choice before," she said.
If she has backed parents, she has also got the backs up of some teachers and heads.
She was jeered by head teachers at a union conference � but she brushes it off. "It goes with the job. I'm not the first education secretary to be given a hard time at a teachers' conference, I'm sure I won't be the last."
Political price of fees
Students are also less than enthusiastic about Labour at present � with surveys suggesting that the party's student support has plummeted, with tuition fees a big concern.
The reform of student funding, with higher fees, deferred repayment and a complex system of subsidies, has failed to win over many students � or possibly just confused them. Ms Kelly concedes that selling tuition fees to the public remains a "communications challenge".
But she remains committed to the economic need to increase the number of graduates to at least 50% of young people, and probably higher.
Opposition to increasing student numbers is "fundamentally elitist and trapped in the past. They don't recognise the significance of the rise of economies such as China and India. We're going to be competing on the basis of skills".
But the most pressing competition for Ruth Kelly is the general election � and she'll be spelling out the themes of investment and raising standards.
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