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Teachers in straitjacket
• IS the anger and frustration of parents at this year’s latest SATs exams fiasco a fitting way to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the most influential education reforms of the late 20th century?
The 1988 Education Act introduced us all to the then revolutionary ideas of a national curriculum, school league tables and SATs exams.
Since 2000, when the Liberal Democrats began to sort out the mess Labour had made of education in Islington, our schools have benefited from the focus on improving published results, better teaching and holding schools to account for how well they educate our children.
But 20 years on, this control-freak Labour government has created a straitjacket that holds back the best teachers with constant meddling and bores too many able pupils with dull “teaching to the test”. Most teachers I know say it is time for a change. Gordon Brown should stop trying to run 23,000 schools from Whitehall.
Liberal Democrats would slim down the national curriculum to allow teachers to use their professional skills once again.
We would stop Labour’s bizarre focus on school structures and get schools to spend much more time listening to employers about the skills they want to see taught in our schools and colleges.
That would be a great way to update the 20-year-old Education Act.
CLLR JAMES KEMPTON
Lib Dem leader, Islington Council
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