The Scottish Conservatives have begun the election year by publishing a new paper on ways to improve state school education in Scotland.
The paper – entitled ‘The Gold Standard – a world class education for every child’ – sets out a series of new policies which will feed into the party’s 2016 election manifesto this year.
Writing in the introduction, party leader Ruth Davidson declares that the party’s aim is to ensure Scotland’s state schools are able “to compete with the best in the world “.
She writes: “We want to make your local school your school of choice – so that parents who currently feel the need to pay fees or move catchment area to secure a better start for their child, don’t have to. They know their local school is as good as any that requires direct or indirect financial outlay.”
The paper identifies three key areas where government could act immediately to improve standards – putting schools in charge, improving literacy and numeracy, and delivering greater transparency.
Jamie Greene, local Scottish Conservative candidate welcomed the publication of this paper by saying “It is clear that we are the only party investing in full scrutiny of the Scottish government, proposing alternative plans and being a credible opposition to the SNP. I see no such plans from Scottish Labour, whilst the SNP rests the laurels of its electoral success we will, instead, consistently be proposing new and different ways to run Scotland so that the electorate truly have a choice when it comes to elections and choosing their MSPs this May.
New policies in the paper include:
- Handing control over budgets, recruitment and funding of the new Scottish attainment challenge directly to headteachers
- "Buddying” the best and worst-performing schools to help spread best practice
- Greater focus on literacy and numeracy, support for parents, and the creation of a new First Minister’s Reading Challenge
- New standardised tests for pupils at P1, P4 and P7
- Backing for a Save the Children campaign to ensure every child by the age of 11 can read well
- A new independent inspectorate which is trusted by parents to set high standards.
The publication of the paper sets the party’s direction for the first few weeks of the election campaign. Jamie told press that new policies on skills and childcare will also be rolled out over the coming weeks.