Often education is seen as a political football rather than just something that politicians are working hard to improve. Sometimes, it is seen that one type of school is necessarily better than another just because it’s structure is different or it is seen to be the latest innovation.
Perhaps we ought to focus a little more on what unites politicians about our education system rather than on the differences. Labour introduced the Academy system where schools could take themselves out of local authority control and have a greater degree of independence. This allows schools to have more opportunity for innovation in finding the best way of educating their children which must be an advantage since every child and school catchment is unique. This is widely seen as having been inspired by the Conservative idea of Grant Maintained Schools.
Free Schools are identical to Academies but are entirely new schools rather than existing schools opting for greater independence. These schools are therefore run on the same lines that Academies are and therefore should receive the same support from both sides of the political divide and is a great cause for unity rather than division.
Another area of innovation in education is in the development of University Technical Colleges which are designed to develop a practical, technical and academic learning environment with a specialist industry focus. The new UTC Bolton will be fully enrolled in 2017 and will provide a great opportunity for more vocationally minded children.
When thinking about Academies, Free Schools and UTCs, we shouldn’t forget that the majority of pupils receive their education in local authority schools. Many Community Schools continue to provide a good and improving education for children of all backgrounds and abilities. It is particularly pleasing that, for example, over the last year all of the primary schools in Westhoughton are judged to be in the top two categories of good or outstanding whereas only a few years ago two were in the third and one was in the fourth category. This is down to the hard work of the whole of the schools community!
Ultimately, the best people to decide which school is best are the children and parents. Therefore politicians need to offer families a great choice of schooling and also the confidence of good apprenticeships, universities and employment afterwards. This is why the Conservatives long term economic plan is so important because we want people to not only achieve at school but also have a rewarding career in a thriving economy afterwards.