[DayneD89]

V203 - Education Reform Bill 2009, Centre Party

A Bill to reform secondary and tertiary education in the UK to ensure that all students have their talents nurtured and leave schools with a good standard of basic skills and the skills they need for their chosen career; and as an important bonus, making the UK an attractive place for skilled industries to locate themselves.

Preamble

Education is panacea. Improvements in education have been linked to lower crime, lower poverty, less inequality and greater economic growth. However UK state education, especially at secondary level, is too-often an exercise in box ticking and jumping through hoops. Schools are bound by a strict, formulaic system and curriculum that is good at teaching the standard C student but struggles to nurture the talents of those with less-normal aims and abilities: those who are more suited to practical tasks and the very bright students who are not pushed.

Change is needed.

Change in emphasis - what is school for? Nurturing talent not passing exams. Change in structure – how to provide it? By acknowledging that teachers are the experts and know best how to nurture students, but that they must be supported by facilities, by having the freedom to teach and by having a range of curriculum options. And change in horizons – that a “pretty good” school is not good enough, that we must demand far better and be prepared to invest the money to make it so. This bill aims to be that change.

Lastly, we must remember that education is an investment. Better education today means better economic growth and higher tax revenue tomorrow. I do not argue that this is entirely self-funding, and that is why there will be more bills coming in the future to cut spending and raise tax revenue. However this money is not being poured into a black hole, it will reap dividends in the future; and in a recession, when demand has crashed and people, especially young people, are having trouble finding employment, what better way to stimulate the economy back into growth?

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. Emphasis

(1) Since schools primary aim should be to ensure that all students have their talents and skills nurtured, teachers and schools are hereby allowed the freedom to innovate, and go off curriculum, to do this. The requirement to follow the national curriculum strictly is removed, though the national curriculum stills stands as the basis from which teachers should selectively deviate.
(a) Schools are required to allow teachers enough time to innovate and nurture students. This may involve extra-curricular teaching or putting students in contact with employers or other teachers who specialise in that area to further their interest.
This may involve extra-curricular teaching or putting students in contact with employers or other teachers who specialise in that area to further their interest.
(b) Schools are required to encourage students to talk to teachers about their interests and developing their talents, and a national campaign will be launched to make parents and students aware that their school is there to help them develop their talents and interests.

(2) Schools are allowed to stream by ability in academic subjects to any degree they like. Formal guidance is changed to focus on ensuring that all students are appropriately taught, that the very able are stretched and that teaching is accessible to the less able.

(3) Class sizes are restricted to 25 except in exceptional circumstances, and schools should aim to get average class sizes lower.

(4) The charter for schools and guidance for representatives from the department responsible for education are amended to include a term encouraging them to talk to national and local employers to ensure that the education they offer will enable students to be prepared and have the skills required to enter work.

(5) Ofsted guidance is amended to include an assessment of schools on a holistic basis as well as by subject, and an assessment of how well schools nurture the talent and interests of their students in addition to the quality of their lessons.

2. Years 10 and 11

(1) All students will take English and mathematics at GCSE. These are referred to as the 'core GCSEs'.
(a) In Welsh language schools Welsh will also be a core GCSE.

(2) Comprehensive schools are required to offer the following options for students in year 10 and 11 in addition to the core GCSEs:

• to take more GCSEs as currently
• to take an accelerated academic programme (if the school also offers A levels, see 3(c))
• to take practical qualifications.

(a) Students can combined options from these, but must, as a minimum, study for 5 GCSEs or the core GCSEs plus a practical qualification or an accelerated academic qualification.
(b) Schools are allowed to set minimum requirements for entry onto accelerated academic programmes.
(c) To fulfil this requirement it is expected that most schools within a local education authority will offer

(3) An accelerated academic programme will lead to an A level or similar qualification, to be taken over between two and three years. They are designed for students who wish to study additional A levels or who wish to go to university a year earlier with a similar number of A levels as present. They will require a similar minimum workload to 3 or 4 GCSEs.
(a) Schools can decide which subjects to offer accelerated academic programmes in, subject to offering at least one science, at least one language and at least one humanity.
(b) Schools are free to structure these as they see fit.
(c) If a school does not offer A levels they can decide not to offer accelerated academic programmes, however they must ensure that students who wish to pursue these can do so elsewhere.

(4) An exam board, the Practical Qualifications Authority (PQA) will be set up to launch a range of practical, skills-based qualifications, called Practical Certificates of Education (PCEs). These will be broad qualifications of a similar minimum workload to 3 or 4 GCSEs. Options that will be launched from the outset will be:

• electrical engineering
• mechanical engineering
• business, finance and accountancy
• information technology
• social work
• performing arts.

(a) Schools must offer at least two of these. Local education authorities must ensure that at least four are offered within the area accessible to every student.
(b) These qualifications must include at least one month of full-time work experience relevant to the subject. This can be done during the school term if other studies permit, or during the summer break, or at any other time. If there are a lack of employers willing to be involved in this scheme, local education authorities will be authorised to provide inducements for companies to be involved in the scheme.

3. Post-16 Education

(1) National Vocational Qualifications will be revamped to make them more inline with employers’ and students’ needs. This will be done by a review of the curriculum aimed at making them a better preparation for work and allowing flexibility in the degree of specialisation. In addition, there will be a compulsory work placement of at least three months in an area relevant to the subject.

(2) A review into A levels will be launched to make them more inline with universities’ and students’ needs. This review will be wide-ranging review, with the aim of devising a qualification that acts as good preparation for degree-level studies, that is challenging enough to help top universities distinguish between the top candidates while remaining accessible to candidates not aiming for the top universities. One option the review will examine is whether taking IB SL or HL courses as standalone courses could supplant A levels.

4. Post-18 Education

(1) The government will launch a practical degree qualification and will encourage universities to offer them, by providing funding for them. Practical degrees will be aimed at providing the skills needed to perform technical, skilled jobs and appealing to students wanting a degree more-focused towards practical tasks and employment. The government will work closely with a wide range of employers and universities to ensure such degrees meet this requirement and are challenging for students. Whereas academic degrees are focused on the academics and teach practical methods where necessary to do this, practical degrees will be focused on the task or vocation and will teach academic studies where necessary to compliment this. These degrees should involve a year-long placement in industry.

(2) Universities will be encouraged to reclassify degrees in accountancy and finance, business, media, design, architecture and other practically- or vocationally-focused degrees into practical degrees. Doing as such will remove the requirements for these degrees to be strictly academic and will give universities more freedom to focus the degrees towards a vocation, as described in (1).

(3) The government target of getting 50% of young people into university is scrapped.

5. Finance

(1) The education budget will be raised by £15 billion, from the current £75.7 billion, to meet these aims. This will be reviewed in 2012 to see if it has been enough to reach this and if it is all necessary.

(2) Some of this funding will be used to launch a new national teacher training initiative to try to meet the increased demand for teachers, especially teachers of practical qualifications, that this will cause.
(a) This will be accompanied by a marketing campaign to raise awareness of teaching as a career option and let people know that red tape is being cut and teachers are being allowed the freedom to teach and innovate.
(b) The government will provide £10,000 per teacher in support for Teach First to expand the number of teachers they recruit, up to 1000 teachers per year.
(c) The government will provide extra training for teachers working in schools classified by Ofsted as failing and will provide one-off payments of £2000 to teachers deemed 'exceptional' by Ofsted who wish to work in such schools. The government will also pay a bonus to teachers in these schools of up to £2000 per year linked to improvements in their students' performance.

(3) In the short term this funding will come from the capital spending and employment portions of the stimulus package. In the long term this funding will partly pay for itself through higher tax revenue, with the rest coming from either borrowing, increased tax revenue or reduced spending as the commons sees fit. The method of funding will be reviewed in each budget.

6. Commencement, short title and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Education Reform Bill 2009.

(2) Section 5 of this Act shall come into force immediately. Sections 1, 3(2) and 4 will come into force on 1 September 2010. All other sections will come into force on 1 September 2011.

(3) This Act extends to all parts of The United Kingdom except Scotland.

[sconzey]

No; Education is no role for the State.

[tucker672]

Aye

[Thunder and Jazz]

My compliments to the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and especially the Centre parties for this bill.

[Birchington]

Aye...

[Collingwood]

It is an impressive bill that will no doubt prove to be a great leap sideways.

[Kolya]

Thanks to everyone who helped pass this by such a large margin.

[DayneD89]

The ayes have it! The ayes have it! Unlock!