Jim shares this latest news from Labour’s 2017 council election prospective parliamentary candidate, Julian Critchley. Ed
Labour candidate Julian Critchley today welcomed Labour’s commitments on what he described as, ‘The best package of education reforms I’ve seen since I became a teacher’.
Labour is promising:
- Cap class sizes at 30 for infant primary school children.
- Guarantee that every teacher has qualified teacher status.
- Reinstate the Education Maintenance Allowance.
- Reintroduce student maintenance grants.
- Provide free school meals for all primary school children.
- Scrap the Free Schools programme and reinstate local input on planning for new school places.
- Promote affordable, universal childcare that is accessible to all.
- Invest in further and adult education to provide cradle-to-grave support for learners of all ages and backgrounds.
- Introduce an arts pupil premium.
- Develop a national offer for care leavers.
Time to take back control
Julian Critchley said,
“The Tory government has been privatising our schools by stealth. We can see exactly where that leads with a private company now threatening to close down Sandown Bay Academy in order to save the cash to continue to pay its executives huge salaries.
“It’s time to take back control of our education system. Labour’s proposals do just this. Not only are we re-instating local accountability over the provision of school places, but we’re also offering a National Education Service which, like Labour’s NHS, offers free access to world-class education at any point in a citizen’s life, from childcare to adult education.
“I have worked in education for almost my entire career. First as a civil servant in the Department for Education, and then at the chalkface in a comprehensive school. After Michael Gove’s vandalism of our state education system, Labour’s proposals are welcome, timely and excellent. This is a blueprint for a world-leading education system for all our citizens, young and old.”
