The Green Party has promised to abolish SATs tests and end the academies programme should they get into power, with the announcement being made rather aptly outside the struggling Sandown Bay Academy earlier today (Monday).
Vix Lowthion, the Green Party’s education spokesperson and Parliamentary Candidate for the Isle of Wight, has pledged to end the practice of testing children from the age of 7 through SATs, freeing teacher and pupils from ‘pointless, pressured testing’. In addition, Ms Lowthion has put forward plans to end the academies programme and bring existing academies back under local authority control.
The announcement was made outside Sandown Bay Academy this morning, a school that is currently under the control of Academies Enterprise Trust – although many are campaigning for them to be removed from such responsibility.
A promise has also been made by the Greens to invest £7billion in the education system to fill the funding gap created by years of under-investment and cuts. Figures show that by 2020, 99% of schools will have been hit by a funding cut – the average primary school will have lost £103,000, and the average secondary school will have lost £470,000.
Vix, who is also a secondary school teacher, has said:
“We want to create an inspiring education system that transforms lives and transforms Britain – but that can’t happen without the very basic foundations being in place and this government has been removing them brick by brick. How are schools meant to prepare children for life when 99% will suffer from funding cuts and children and teachers are subjected to pointless, pressurised testing?
“We need to make up for the enormous shortfall, the massive neglect, in our education system by plugging the £7billion spending deficit. At the same time as schools are getting less resources, more is being asked of teachers and pupils. Getting rid of SATs tests would be one big step towards putting the fun, creativity, and inspiration can be put back into school and teachers are free to teach.”
“The academies programme has taken schools out of the hands of local authorities and parents and given them over to private businesses. That means that if a school isn’t performing a commercial interest, it can be shut down at will by the owners, leaving pupils without a school to go to. We would bring existing academies back under local authority control so that our children’s education is in the hands of teachers and parents, not businesses.”
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Meanwhile the Conservative’s Bob Seely has said:
“Government proposals increase investment in Island education by over £800K and Island Conservatives will be working together to convince ministers to look again at the detail to ensure that all Island children get a fair deal.
“Island Conservatives, working with Hampshire County Council, have been driving up education standards over past few years and are committed to ensuring that all schools on the Isle of Wight will be good or better. I pay tribute to the dedicated staff in schools across the Island, and welcome the recently announced Isle of Wight Council Initiative, Awards for Excellence in Education, to acknowledge their hard work.
“As the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, I will work alongside local councillors to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of the secondary school provision in Sandown. What Conservatives want to see is real action and people working together to defend schools and improve education for young people on the Isle of Wight, not opportunistic political grandstanding”.
Labour candidate Julian Critchley has welcomed Labour’s commitments on what he has described as ‘the best package of education reforms I’ve seen since I became a teacher’.
Julian 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”.
