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Conservative Party on Education
"The Tories’ policy commission on special needs said schools should be given the opportunity to change to special academy status along the similar lines to existing academy schools."
"State special schools should be allowed more freedom to expand the number of places and services they offer by getting academy status, a report by the Conservatives said today.... The Tories’ policy commission on special needs said schools should be given the opportunity to change to special academy status along the similar lines to existing academy schools."
Mr. Gove told the Tory Party conference all state schools would be able to opt for Academy status and free themselves from local authority control.
"We specifically believe in extending academy freedoms to more and more schools so academy status becomes the norm in secondary education."
Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said: “The massive growth in candidates getting three As suggests standards are not being policed as rigorously as in the past.” He plans to overhaul GCSEs and A-levels by making papers more difficult and giving universities a role in setting them.
Michael Gove: "It must be our mission to inject common sense into our examination system so we have fewer, better, more rigorous exams, because we cannot go on as we are."
"Mr. Gove said choice over exams was 'crucial to driving up standards', partly because it would allow state schools to 'reverse the flight from quality and opt for more rigorous qualifications.'"
"And it needs a governing body that is more representative of those people who have a real interest in maintaining a rigorous exam system - such as those working in academia and industry."
"(Conservative leader) David Cameron has personally rejected the 50 per cent target."
"The Conservative Party will abolish all university tuition fees and abandon the government's 50 per cent participation target if it wins the next general election, it was confirmed this week."
"Labour’s pledge to improve graduate-level skills by getting 50 per cent of young people into university has come to nothing."
"The Government has insisted on the target of 50 per cent of all students being offered a place at university. We must not rush to blame our universities, they have responded well to this enormous pressure for expansion from these unrealistic and inflexible targets."
Michael Gove: "We want to see more teaching by ability so we can begin to narrow the gap in achievement between those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and the rest."
"Children should be given the opportunity to learn in accordance with their particular aptitude and ability, so that the brightest pupils are stretched and those who might be struggling are given extra support," Michael Gove said.
But Mr Cameron will today signal a shift towards setting, where pupils are assessed on a subject-by-subject basis. The new emphasis on setting was signaled last night by Michael Gove, the Tory shadow schools secretary.
The Conservatives say they will no longer support grammar schools because they are unfair to poorer families.
The MPs are angry about plans to scrap Tory support for grammar schools and selection based on academic ability.
Mr Cameron promised a major change in the emphasis of education policy for a "modern, compassionate Conservative party" - and an emphatic rejection of academic selection.
David Willetts: "Labour's recently published Green Paper is trying to respond to this failure by proposing to raise the leaving age for compulsory education or training from 16 to 18. Despite the good intentions, this could end up letting young people down."
"The Conservative Party also oppose targets to increase participation in higher education and raising the education and training leaving age to 18."
"This flight from quality is a concern for all of us - the scientific breakthroughs which will combat global warming, the mathematical models which will reduce financial risk and the medical innovations which will lengthen and enrich our lives are unlikely to be generated by close application to the GCSE media studies syllabus - but the cost is greatest for those students nudged or led towards this course at the expense of others."
Michael Gove: "Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the last few years have seen a precipitate drop in the numbers pursuing modern languages at GCSE and A level and a complementary increase in the number taking soft subjects."
The Shadow Schools Minister described the news as "extremely worrying", pointing out that Labour's league tables encourage weaker schools to push pupils away from the traditional subjects towards alternatives that are less valued by universities and employers.
Conservative leader, David Cameron, says tuition fees are unavoidable. "The money's got to come from somewhere."
Ministers and their Conservative shadows have all indicated that they expect students to be charged more at the end of the review.
A Labour MP has gone on the record claiming that the Government is conspiring with the Conservative Party to ensure that the issue of undergraduate tuition fees remains off the political agenda in the run-up to the next general election.