The Lib Dems’ education policies: you ask the questions

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/03/lib-dems-education-policies-schools-david-laws

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What percentage of sixth-formers can work out the total amount repayable on tuition fee debt?

David Goldfinch, Folkestone, Kent, parent and ex-Lib Dem voter

The Liberal Democrats won only 8% of the seats in parliament – and both the larger parties were committed to tuition fees. In that scenario we couldn’t abolish fees, so we did everything we could to make the system fairer: no one pays a penny up front, or starts paying back their loan until they are earning more than £21,000. The most recent figures show more young people from poorer backgrounds applying to university than ever before, as well as a big rise in the number of people going into higher education.

We have delivered the £2.5bn pupil premium from our last manifesto – this extra support will help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds secure the qualifications they need to go on into higher education in the future.

Which Lib Dem education policies will be “red line” in future coalition negotiations?

Tom Barker, history and education student, Durham

Our number-one priority will be protecting education budgets: it’s impossible to raise standards, recruit teachers and help more children succeed if our education system is starved of funds. All parties will have to make savings in the next parliament: but we will not cut the money spent on schools, early years and 16 to 19 education. We also want to see a qualified teacher (or someone training towards a teaching qualification) in every classroom.

Is co-operation or competition between schools the most beneficial for pupils and what is the evidence for your response?

David Selby, retired educational adviser, Winchester, Hampshire

Co-operation, but with proper accountability, and respecting the right of parents to choose. We need to move to a system where different schools support each other to improve and share best practice. That means more oversight and challenge of local authorities and academy chains that are struggling; more action to get the best school leaders working to improve underperforming schools; and a National Leadership Institute to increase the number of top-quality headteachers.

Should there be a national curriculum or curriculum freedom for all schools?

@janetmarland, headteacher, via Twitter

Schools should have a good deal of curriculum freedom, but there should be a minimum curriculum entitlement for every state-funded school: why should we have two classes of schools governed by different rules? Parents want to know that, whatever school their child attends, they will learn the basic skills and knowledge that prepare them for life.

Crucially, that curriculum should be set by subject experts and teaching professionals independently of government: what is taught in the classroom should not be subject to political whim. We would set up an educational standards authority to take over responsibility for curriculum changes in the future, and to report on standards over time.

The gap in achievement at GCSE has widened between students eligible for the pupil premium and others. Does this mean Lib Dem policy has failed and, if so, why?

@janetmarland, headteacher, via Twitter

The real attainment gap is narrowing at both primary level and secondary level. This is very clear in the numbers for primary education. At secondary level, where pupils have benefited from the pupil premium for a much smaller proportion of their schooling, it is much harder to compare progress because so much has changed in the exam system. It is clear, however, that the attainment gap in the crucial subjects of English and maths narrowed again this year, and published DfE analysis shows the overall secondary gap narrowed too, when you adjust for the “Wolf reforms” [which removed some qualifications from league tables] and other changes. Teachers and school leaders deserve credit and recognition for this.

The pupil premium is a huge amount of extra money, secured by Liberal Democrats despite the bleak economic situation. I firmly defend the principle that disadvantaged children should get extra support. Schools are doing some incredible things with the money – one-to-one tuition; small study groups; breakfast clubs – and the worst thing we could do is stifle teachers’ innovation and imagination by dictating how it should be spent. I am confident that, in the hands of teachers and with proper accountability, the pupil premium will lead to even greater progress for disadvantaged pupils in the years ahead.

Related: The Green party’s education policies: you ask the questions

There are schools that are struggling with costs above the £2.30 ongoing funding for universal infants’ free school meals. What should they cut to subsidise your policy?

Andy Jolley, school governor, Dorset

We believe that this is a well funded policy, as do the vast majority of school food experts. A School Food Trust survey found £2.30 to be the average cost of a meal, and we also provided £22.5m of additional funding to smaller schools.

Schools have done an amazing job at delivering universal free school meals. Pilots showed free school meals boost results, get children eating more healthily and save parents money. Of course there are people who simply don’t accept that taxpayers should be paying for children to eat a healthy meal at lunch time, and have attempted to undermine this progressive and socially just policy. But outstanding schools and headteachers have proved the critics wrong.

You support aggressive academisation, despite no evidence it improves schools. Do you believe in it, or are you just yes men?

@par4Ed, via Twitter

What makes a difference in schools is having strong leadership and high-quality staff. Becoming an academy can help to address persistent poor leadership, governance and performance. But it is not a magic bullet. Liberal Democrats do not believe in academisation for its own sake – this is where we part company with the Conservatives.

We are not yes men. In government alone the Conservatives would have cut school budgets, destroying our efforts to improve education. The Conservatives have proposed allowing profit-making companies to run schools, and the return of the 1950s O-level/CSE divide. It was Liberal Democrats who stopped these ideas.

Do you agree that someone who broke six rules relating to expenses lacks the moral integrity to influence schooling?

@Nicholas_ D_ Mead, via Twitter

I agree that I should have been open about my sexuality, and if I had been I would not have been in breach of the rules. The parliamentary commissioner found that I did not act for financial gain and that my expenses claims were lower than they would have been had I been open about my personal circumstances.

What matters is not someone’s private life but what they believe. My relentless focus has been on raising the attainment of poorer pupils so that everyone can achieve their full potential.

We are not yes men. In government alone the Conservatives would have cut school budgets, destroying our efforts

What have the Lib Dems done, and what would you do, to significantly progress social mobility? We are still failing lots of able students and we should have some measure of the progress we make towards reducing the numbers of students we fail to zero.

Michael Cross, trustee of Villiers Park educational trust, Richmond, Surrey

I agree this is the greatest challenge facing our education system. It’s why the Liberal Democrats prioritised the pupil premium and delivered it in government. We are also scrapping Labour’s unfair A*-C measure, which forced teachers, against their professional instincts, to focus only on children in the middle of the ability range.

We need to do even more. First, we must continue to protect the schools budget, as well as early years and 16 to 19 education. You can’t tackle the attainment gap without proper funding. Second, we need a razor-sharp focus on the early years, with expanded, higher-quality provision. That will mean tackling skills in the early years and raising the status of the early years workforce through better pay. Finally, we need to support the teaching profession at every level and make sure we get the best talent to the areas that most need it. Outstanding school leadership and excellent teaching are the keys to turning a child’s life around.

How seriously should we take current polls that show low morale and a teacher recruitment crisis in primary education?

Bill Lord @Yoga5, via Twitter

Any government would be foolish to ignore teachers’ morale. It’s another reason I feel so strongly about protecting education budgets in the next parliament: recruiting more teachers and giving them proper professional support and development costs money.

Liberal Democrats in government have shown that we trust and value teachers, for example by giving teachers the freedom to use the pupil premium as they see fit, and by backing a Royal College of Teaching to raise the status of the profession. In the future I would like to see a proper and well funded offer of high-quality continuing professional development for every teacher.

The overwhelming majority of teachers came into the profession for the right reasons and with high ambitions for children: the government needs to work with teachers, not against them.

David Laws is schools minister and Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil

The key Lib Dem policies are:

• All teachers in state schools must be qualified, or working towards qualification.

• All nurseries must have at least one qualified early years teacher by 2020.

• Increase in pupil premium in early years.

• Ofsted to inspect academy chains.

• Profit-making schools ruled out.

• Fund new mainstream schools only where places are needed.

• Extend free school meals to all primary pupils.

• Ensure fair admissions for all schools.

• Help establish a profession-led Royal College of Teachers to oversee training and development.

• Establish an independent body responsible for the curriculum and exam standards.

The Lib Dems’ latest education policy document is at libdems.org.uk/policy_paper_121 (chapter 4)

A secondary school teacher explains why she is voting Lib Dem

Michael Gove was successful in radicalising education – and the Lib Dems were in a difficult position trying to temper him. I don’t think the policies he introduced have raised standards. To most teachers, it’s the pupil premium and free school meals for pupils in key stage one – Lib Dem ideas – that have had an impact.

I’m an English teacher and special needs co-ordinator, so the pupil premium has made a real difference to me. It’s a significant pot of money at a time when other sources of funding have dried up. It’s not prescriptive, so you can be creative with it. We’ve used it to fund extra staff in English and maths, music lessons and after-school tuition. We’ve also run specially targeted programmes – for example, our year 9 boys have done a literacy in sport programme for 10 weeks.

It’s also been a huge help for small primary schools, which would otherwise struggle to pay for teaching assistants. At secondary school, we often have pupils who really needed additional support much earlier on. I like the Lib Dems’ focus on early years, free childcare and giving free school meals to all primary children.

If you’re in coalition there are always going to be things you’re not 100% happy with. If the Lib Dems do get in again, it will be in a coalition – it’s difficult to know who with. I don’t think Labour’s education policy is particularly coherent. They have this idea of changing the free school programme. Huge amounts of money has gone into free schools. Trying to undo everything wouldn’t be simple, nor would it be the best use of public money at this stage.

Labour also has ideas about cutting class sizes – but this is at a time when we know that we have a crisis in school places. And there’s not much research that shows a massive difference between having a class of 30 and 33. We don’t need policies that introduce change just for the sake of it.

Jo Wright teaches in Crowborough, East Sussex

Interview by Rebecca Ratcliffe

Next up: Ukip

Send us your questions now for Paul Nuttall, the education spokesman for the UK Independence party.

Do you want to know more about Ukip’s ideas on fair admissions, free schools or the national curriculum? Tweet us using the hashtag #gdneduUkip, or email alice.woolley@guardian.co.uk with UKIP QUESTION in the subject field. Questions by noon on Friday 13 March, please. Over to you.

Coming soon: the Labour and Conservative party.