Responding to the education policies in the Conservative Party
manifesto for the 2024
General Election, Pepe Di'Iasio, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“This is a collection of recycled policies with nothing new to
say about how the Conservatives would deal with the shortage of
funding, teachers and the crisis in special educational needs
provision. The pledge to protect day-to-day school spending in
real terms per pupil is the bare minimum. In reality the costs
that schools actually face are often higher than inflation and
they are starting from a point of seeing budget cuts over the
past 14 years. This commitment does not extend to post-16
education either.
“It is also disappointing to see the Conservatives trot out a
policy on banning mobile phones yet again – having already said
this on countless occasions and given that most schools already
prohibit their use during the school day or allow it only in very
limited circumstances. Similarly, they have once again insinuated
that schools are sharing inappropriate materials in sex education
and over gender identity. We have not seen evidence to support
this claim and it seems to us to be largely political posturing.
“Mandating two hours of PE every week in primary and secondary
schools is an example of top-down policymaking without looking at
the pressures on school time and the curriculum caused by a huge
range of expectations, underfunding and staff shortages. Schools
absolutely do recognise and promote the value of sport and PE as
a vital part of good health, and they already strive to provide
this alongside everything else that is expected of them. It would
be more effective for politicians to provide more support rather
than more mandates.
“We assume that the line in the manifesto about backing Ofsted to
provide clear judgements to parents means the Conservatives do
not intend to remove single-phrase judgements which cause so much
damage to the wellbeing of education staff and stigmatise
schools. This is also extremely disappointing.
“Sadly, it is a manifesto which misses the mark of the priorities
which are uppermost in the minds of school and college leaders
and smacks of being completely out of touch with reality.”
