25 signatures reached
To: PPC's in Leicestershire
Vote Education
We are calling on all PPC's in Leicestershire/Leicester to support NEU's education manifesto. The key points are below:
- Reverse cuts to schools, colleges and nurseries and increase education spending to five per cent of GDP.
- End child poverty, starting with the removal of the two-child benefit cap and guarantee a free, nutritious school lunch for every pupil.
- An engaging and inclusive curriculum, which embeds anti-racism and guarantees all pupils access to a broad range of subjects, including the arts and PE.
- End Government tests in primary schools and overhaul 14-19 assessment to stop the exam factory culture.
- Provide appropriate special needs support quickly and without unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Recruit enough teachers and school staff to fill soaring vacancies, by making pay competitive again.
- Abolish Ofsted and replace it with a collaborative and supportive system, focused on giving good advice and feedback to schools.
- Keep teachers, leaders and school staff in the profession by asking us how to tackle unmanageable workloads.
- Increase non-teaching time for professional development, collaboration and planning, especially for early career teachers.
- Tighter regulation of social media companies to protect children from online harm and prioritise their welfare.
Why is this important?
Fourteen years of neglect and underfunding have left education – from early years through to post-16 – in tatters. It is imperative that all political parties address this in their manifestos. Not in vague terms, with piecemeal solutions. But with meaningful proposals about how this situation will be reversed if they form the next Government.
Our schools are chronically underfunded. Primary class sizes are the highest in Europe, and secondary class sizes are the highest since records began more than forty years ago. Teachers are underpaid and overworked, resulting in the worst recruitment and retention crisis in a generation. That will not be reversed unless there is significant change to pay and terms and conditions of the education workforce.
SEND provision and mental health support for our young people is practically non-existent. We have a curriculum and assessment system that does not engage many pupils, or give each of them the chance to thrive. Many of our school buildings are in a chronic state of disrepair, literally crumbling away with the ongoing effects of RAAC and asbestos.
This is a grim picture for one of the richest countries in the world. It’s far from the ‘world class ’ education system so regularly promised by our Government. It cannot go on.
We need a Government to invest in education and to invest in our young people. If you value education, vote for education. Let’s give our children the education they deserve.
