The Scottish Conservatives have set out plans for radical change in education. At a press conference in Edinburgh Annabel Goldie, Scottish Conservative leader, and Liz Smith, Shadow Schools Minister, laid out radical plans to break the state monopoly over education provision, give more control to teachers and more choice to parents. Speaking ahead of the event Annabel Goldie said:
"This week, a new poll shows Scottish voters believe our public services are not delivering. On education 41% believe standards have remained the same - despite the fact that the education budget has doubled since devolution. This is not good enough.
"The coalition of the left, the SNP, Labour and the Lib Dems, have presided over a Scotland where education standards have flat-lined or even fallen. Look at the facts:
* 13,000 pupils a year leave school unable to read or write properly.
* Just 30% of pupils in S2 are meeting the required standard in maths.
* Scottish pupils are now ranked below the global average in maths and science.
* 2/3 of S2 pupils are struggling with literacy.
"Children in Scotland are not getting the education they deserve. Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems are refusing to listen despite all the evidence. We need radical change. We need to give teachers and parents more power to break the state monopoly on education."
Shadow Schools Minister, Liz Smith said:
"The current situation is just not acceptable. It is not acceptable to parents, to teachers or to pupils, all of whom know we should be doing very much better. The Scottish Conservatives believe it is time for radical change.
"If we want standards to go up, we must break the current monopoly the state has over the provision of education, give teachers more control and give parents more choice. We need to take power away from the politicians and start trusting teachers and head-teachers. This can be achieved by allowing the direct state funding of new independently run free schools which can compete with the existing local authority run schools.
"These schools would not be allowed to charge fees or to become selective. They would remain subject to the same, very rigorous HMIe and Care Commission inspection processes which exist just now for all schools.
In some cases, they could be run by educational charities, not for profit trusts or by other philanthropic bodies."
To read Liz Smith's speech on bringing radical change to education click here.
