The Conservative Manifesto 1997

Education and Opportunity

Our Education Guarantee

Years of mistaken, progressive education in the 1960s and 1970s denied these precious skills to too many children. We have worked ceaselessly since 1979 to put that right. Our decision to test children and publish the results has allowed standards to be measured and exposed. We have reformed the curriculum, toughened inspections, and given more information and power to parents. Our many excellent teachers now know what is expected of them, and already standards in schools are rising. But they are still not good enough. We must do more.

Building on what we have done, we can now offer a new pledge to parents - a guarantee of education standards.

First, we will set national targets for school performance that reflect our objective of ensuring that Britain is in the top league of international standards across the whole spectrum of education.

Second, we will require every school to plan how to improve its performance, and to set targets which relate to similar schools and national standards.

Third, we will give all parents full information on the performance of their child's school.

Fourth, to underwrite our pledge, we will ensure action is taken to bring any under-performing school up to the mark.

We will meet this pledge by using the full set of levers for improved standards that we have put in place.

We are revising and simplifying the National Curriculum in primary schools to emphasise high standards in the basic skills.

Parents and teachers must have an overview of not just how much a child has learnt while at school, but how the school performs against others. Poor schooling must not be protected by a veil of secrecy. Parent power is a vital force for higher standards.

Regular tests and exams are essential if teachers are to discover how much their pupils have learnt, and parents are to know how much progress their children are making against national standards. That is why children are already being tested at 7, 11 and 14. We will publish all school test results, including the results of tests of 7 and 14 year olds.

We propose also to assess every child at five.

This will give teachers and parents a benchmark against which they can measure future progress. To give a better measure of pupils performance, marks out of 100 will be made available to parents as well as the broad-brush levels.

We will also introduce a new test for 14 year old children that covers the whole National Curriculum - assessing progress before they choose subjects for GCSE.

Tests and exams need to be rigorous and demanding. We will insist that they establish children's command of spelling, punctuation, and grammar in English tests. Children will sit arithmetic tests without calculators. We will not allow such extensive use of open books in tests and in GCSE exams. We will establish an English Language GCSE. We will continue to uphold the gold standard of A-levels, and ensure that the great classics of our literature are studied at A-level. At the same time students should have the chance to study more subjects in the sixth form.

Rigorous tests show how individual children and schools are performing and expose schools that are not giving children the education they deserve. To underwrite our guarantee, we will then take action to improve standards. We cannot tolerate schools that fail their pupils.

By this summer every secondary school in the country will have been inspected by independent inspectors, and by summer 1998, every primary school will have been inspected as well. We have the power to take over failing schools directly and close them if necessary. We will now go further and require every school to set and publish regular targets and plans for improving their academic results. Independent inspectors will monitor the results of weaker schools and their plans for improvement at regular intervals.

Sometimes, though, schools are failing because the local education authority which runs them is failing. The authorities with the worst GCSE results and the worst results at Key Stage 2 (11 year olds) are run by Labour. Those children need our help.

We will allow for an independent inspection of education authorities and intervene directly to raise standards where education authorities are letting children down.

Failing authorities will be required to set out their plans to raise standards, and work with education teams - directed by independent inspectors - to implement those plans.

The vast majority of teachers do an outstanding job. They have played a key part in implementing the reforms that we have introduced. A few though, fail their pupils.

We will establish a more rigorous and effective system of appraising teachers, which reflects how well their pupils perform in tests and exams: this will identify which teachers need more help and, where necessary, which teachers need to be replaced.

Many feel that the professional standing of teachers would be strengthened by the creation of a single body which could speak with authority on professional standards. We will consult with teachers and other interested parties about the possible role of such a body.

The school should be a place of stability and stimulation for children, especially if they come from a hostile or turbulent environment. To improve standards in future our new teacher training curriculum will stress traditional teaching methods - including whole class teaching and learning to read by the sounds of letters. We will also encourage more teachers to enter the profession through practical training schemes focused on classroom experience such as the Graduate Teacher Scheme. A child is likely to learn more in a well-ordered school. Teachers must have the powers they need to maintain discipline. We will give teachers greater power to set detentions to exclude disruptive pupils and to use reasonable physical restraint where necessary.

Schools also have an important role to play in spiritual and moral education. We will take steps to ensure that every school fulfils its role of providing religious education and collective worship.

Choice and Diversity

Since 1979 we have created a rich diversity of schools, to serve the varied talents of all children and give parents choice within that diversity, because we believe that parents know what is best for their children.

That is why we - and only we - are committed to giving the parent of every four year old child a voucher for nursery education so they can choose the pre-school education they want for their child, whether in a play-group, a reception class, or a nursery school in the private or state sector.

We will give more talented children, from less well-off backgrounds, the opportunity to go to fee-paying schools by expanding the Assisted Places Scheme to cover all ages of compulsory education, in line with our current spending plans. We propose to develop it further into a wider scholarship scheme covering additional educational opportunities. The freedoms and status of fee-paying schools will be protected.

Grant-maintained schools have been popular with parents across the country - whatever their politics. We will encourage more schools to become grant- maintained and will allow new grant-maintained schools to be set up where there is sufficient local demand. We will give all grant-maintained schools greater freedoms to expand and to select their pupils.

Grant-maintained schools are leading the way. Local authority schools are also benefitting from our policy of local management of schools. Our ultimate objective is that all schools should take full responsibility for the management of their own affairs. In the next parliament we will take another step towards giving them that freedom.

We will extend the benefits of greater self-governance to all LEA schools. We will require local authorities to delegate more of schools� budgets to the schools themselves. We will give them more freedom over the employment of their staff and over admissions. And, where they want it, we will allow them to take over ownership of their assets, so they can make best use of the resources.

Local authorities will continue to be responsible for their schools� standards. They will provide funds, and compete with other organisations to provide services to schools. We would expect the increased responsibility of head-teachers, and their role in achieving efficiency-savings, to be recognised by their pay review body.

Schools are stronger and more effective where head-teachers and governors can shape their own distinctive character. Sometimes that means developing a speciality in some subjects. Sometimes it means selecting children by their aptitudes: where parents want this we should not stand in their way. Special abilities should be recognised and encouraged.

We will continue to encourage the establishment of more specialist schools in technology, arts, languages and sport. We aim to help one in five schools become specialist schools by 2001.

We will allow all schools to select some of their pupils.

We will help schools to become grammar schools in every major town where parents want that choice.

The high standards, real choice and genuine diversity which we have introduced will produce the best results for all our children.

Lifetime Learning

There has been a revolution in further and higher education. Three and a half million people are in further education - up from just half a million in 1979. The number of young people going to university has risen from one in eight to one in three over the same period.

We will ensure consistently high standards and will consult on the development of higher education when we receive the results of the Dearing Review. We have world class research in British universities which we will continue to support.

Every young person should have the opportunity to continue in education or training.

We will give students between 14 and 21 a learning credit which will enable them to choose suitable education or training leading to recognised qualifications up to A levels or their equivalents.

We will also introduce National Traineeships and encourage employers to offer more work-based Modern Apprenticeships to young people. Objective external assessments of a proper syllabus will be made a part of all National Vocational Qualifications.

We will continue to support the network of Training and Enterprise Councils, which have created a valuable partnership between business and government. We will encourage more employers to become involved in "Investors in People", with the public sector matching the performance of the private sector.

Competitive markets demand high skills. If Britain is to win, we need to encourage learning and give people the opportunity to go where their interests and inquiring minds take them.