CENTRALISED EDUCATION SYSTEM IS FAILING PUPILS - CLEGG

9.43.36am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jun 2008

Nick Clegg

The Government's 'one size fits all' approach to schools is accused by Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg of failing thousands of pupils by not providing a personalised education.

Nick Clegg has set out plans to give schools greater freedoms, allowing them to tailor education to the needs of their pupils. He proposed

• Scrapping mandatory national tests for seven and 14 year olds, with the money saved put into early assessment at age five and a huge expansion of one-to-one reading and numeracy tuition.

• Abolishing the very controlling national curriculum and replacing it with a shorter document, allowing all schools the curriculum freedoms currently enjoyed by Academies.

• Taking the politics out of the day-to-day management of schools and slashing the size of the central government department by half.

• Changing targets so that schools are encouraged to address the needs of all pupils, not just those 'borderline' pupils.

Scarborough's Liberal Democrat PPC, Tania Exley-Moore agrees with this policy of taking the politics out of the day-to-day management of schools.

She agrees with the need to strip Ministers of their power to meddle and manage the ordinary running of schools, "It is time" she said "for government to stop being so afraid of diversity".

"There is nothing wrong with schools being different from one another. In fact, when the system encompasses difference, schools can learn from others' success, and improve together, in a way that is impossible when uniformity is imposed from above."

"It is time for ministers to stop sending their regular diet of directives to schools. In fact I'd ban them from doing it" she said. "Schools are overwhelmed with masses of paperwork leaving senior staff with little time to get on with teaching".

Tania Exley-Moore, a teacher herself, agrees with the need to abolish mandatory national testing at seven and 14.

"This will save millions of pounds" she said "and the money can be put directly into improving basic skills for those who presently fall behind from day one, and never catch up". One to one tuition for 5, 6 and 7 year olds has been shown to have huge benefits."