Lib Dems launch education manifesto

11.11.45am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 7th Apr 2005

Bath's MP, Don Foster, along with his Liberal Democrat colleagues, will today launch their Education Manifesto.

This includes a pledge to cut class sizes for 5-11 year olds, to replace the National Curriculum with a Minimum Curriculum Entitlement, to replace GCSEs, A-levels, and vocational qualifications with a new diploma system, and to abolish student top-up and tuition fees.

Commenting, Don Foster said,

"We believe that access to a quality education is a fundamental right of every child. Our focus is on providing every child with a quality local school.

"We will lower infant class sizes to 20 and juniors to 25. This means over 20,000 more teachers who will have more time with every child to bring out the best in them.

"It isn't targets that make the difference; it is expert, enthusiastic, world class teachers. So in English, Maths, Science, ICT and Modern Languages we're guaranteeing parents that their child will be taught by a qualified professional.

"We want to see a new diploma system for pupils after the age of 14, which would offer a mixture of academic and vocational education to all pupils. This would give opportunities to those who were turned off by academic learning, while stretching the most academically gifted.

"In the fair society that the Liberal Democrats want everyone should have the opportunity to make the best of their talents. That is why we would scrap tuition fees and top-up fees for students.

"We should not be saddling our young people with huge debts as they start out in life. And people from low-income backgrounds should not be put off university because of the costs. Higher education should be based on the ability to learn not the ability to pay.

"Current polling already suggests that the Labour vote in our colleges and universities has collapsed. According to the 2005 Student Opinion Survey, a third of all students are planning to vote for the Liberal Democrats."