The article below, written by Damian, appeared on the Conservative Home website:
Like millions of parents across the country my children recently started another school year. Every September is a time of hope – for the opportunities to come, the experiences to be had and the lessons to be learned.
Yet if you were to listen to the doom-laden rhetoric of the Government you could think our children are entering a dystopian failed system, defined by a decline in standards, absenteeism and 14 years of Conservatives in Government not caring about education.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere are Labour’s lazy lines about their inheritance more inappropriate.
We gave parents a choice of a good school: we added 1.2 million more school places, after the 100,000 that were lost up to 2010. We introduced the Free Schools programme and encouraged Academisation, giving schools the freedom to reflect their communities, and Academy Trusts to foster school improvement and spread good practice.
We supported schools with teachers and resources. There are 27,000 more teachers and 60,000 more teaching assistants than in 2010, underpinned by an education budget which as a proportion of GDP was the highest in the G7.
We raised standards across the piece. We championed proven techniques such as Phonics and Maths Mastery, spread laterally school-to-school, not top-down from Whitehall. We established the Education Endowment Foundation to champion what’s proven to work best, rather than adhere to a received-wisdom worldview. We reformed exams and tackled Labour’s endemic grade inflation. We upgraded apprenticeships and introduced T Levels – high-quality vocational qualifications with more time in college and real workplace experience. And we moved to phase out lower-quality qualifications that overlapped heavily with them.
We made five major extensions to early years and childcare entitlements, including 30 hours for three- and four-year-olds in working families, 15 hours for disadvantaged two-year-olds and a higher maximum reclaim through Universal Credit. Supporting parents and giving them options, while providing a solid foundation of early education for young children. This was all before the radical expansion of childcare that started this September, which will extend childcare support down to children of 9 months old.
We opened up higher education to millions more people. We removed the cap on student numbers. And we made it clearer to see where institutions were providing a good experience for students and enhancing their future prospects so young people can make informed choices about their education.
This is what we did.
Did in the face of much opposition, mainly the Labour Party, but also a lot of vested – and allied – interests that historically dominated the world of education. Despite reform showing that standards were rising, Labour constantly screamed “cuts” and demanded “more money now!” as the answer to everything (a tactic it will be interesting to see if they retain in Government).
But it is not what governments say, nor even what they do, that matters, but the effect that action has.
England has risen up every international league table – for science, for reading, for maths.
We have the best primary school readers in the Western world.
90 percent of our state schools are Good or Outstanding – up from 68 percent in 2010 – meaning millions fewer children at an underperforming school. Simply put our state schools are better than ever.
There are more students from state schools at our best universities, and more from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our best universities remain among the best in the world.
Before Covid the attainment gap at every stage of education had narrowed. Covid was a big blow, but provisional Primary School results out last week showed the gap narrowing again last year, below the 2010 level, and getting close to the low achieved pre-pandemic.
Attendance also took a big knock from Covid. Attendance is fundamental – if you’re not at school you can’t benefit from any of what school offers – and indeed there is a strong link between the attainment gap and the attendance gap. Attendance was greatly improved after 2010. Post-Covid we made it our number 1 priority – and the focus is working.
Not everything is perfect, of course it isn’t. We want every child to have access to a world class education. We need attendance to rise further, and the attainment gap to drop lower. We may be up to 11th in the world for maths, but our ambition doesn’t stop there. As Conservatives, we will never be satisfied until opportunity is spread absolutely as far and as wide as it can possibly be.
But the progress we have seen – thanks to the dedication of teachers, supported by our reforms – has been huge.
I was taken aback to hear the Education Secretary accuse the Conservatives of leaving a “trail of devastation across education”.
It’s just nonsense.
Time and again, bodies like the OECD have hailed England’s success. And it stands in contrast to where Labour have already been running education: Wales.
But I have been heartened by the number of people who have contacted me out of the blue to say they want to play a part in challenging this lie from the Labour Party. Labour loves the “blame the Tories” mantra – but this one won’t stick. And we can’t let it.
Not only am I enormously proud of our changes to the education system, but I am also very nervous about the impact that a Labour Government will have on education.
And that’s not just because of what has happened to education in Wales, or what happened the last time they were in control in England: it is what that have already done, and undone, in the short time they have been back in government.
They’ve launched a curriculum review which risks new culture wars and will mean greater workload for teachers – which we worked hard to reduce.
They’ve rowed back academy freedoms which placed trust for provision of education in the hands of the professionals.
They’ve scrapped the Ofsted summary grade without saying what will replace it.
They’ve paused the phase-out of low quality technical and vocational qualifications.
They’ve stopped the commencement of the Free Speech Act.
And they are rushing through the introduction of tax into the education system – not, they say, as the act of class war we know it to be, but as a revenue raiser – despite having done no official analysis of what it will actually raise, nor the impact on the state sector, or to the military families, or children with special needs, it will damage.
What will the effect of all of this action be? We wait to see but as David Johnston wrote on this site it is in education where they may well do the most lasting damage.
Won’t someone think of the children?
In Government, we did. Will Labour?
Damian Hinds is a former Education Secretary and is currently Shadow Education Secretary and MP for East Hampshire.
