Lib Dems to Protect Education from Cradle to College

The Liberal Democrats will protect the full education budget in the next parliament, Nick Clegg announced at his monthly press conference.

Currently funding is protected for children aged between 5 and 16, but Lib Dems would ringfence education spending for 2 to 19-year-olds.

This means that an extra £10billion of education spending would be protected based on this financial year, rising with inflation.

This fits in with the announcement that the Liberal Democrat 2015 Manifesto will include a commitment to every child being taught a core curriculum by a properly qualified teacher.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto will include a commitment to a "parental guarantee" - so that every parent can be confident that their child will be taught a core curriculum by a properly qualified teacher.

The Lib Dem policy, first passed by our federal conference in March 2013, would change legislation so that, by September 2016, all schools will have the same requirement to employ qualified teachers. We have also planned for every state school to deliver a minimum curriculum entitlement, setting out the basic skills and knowledge that every child needs.

These plans have been strongly supported by both the National Association for Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL) - who between them represent the overwhelming majority of head teachers in this country.

In 2012, Michael Gove announced he would remove the requirement for academies to employ qualified teachers. As well as this, academies and free schools are exempt from teaching the National Curriculum. This has meant that some schools have abused their freedom over the curriculum, excluding vital subjects.

The Liberal Democrats want to provide greater clarity to all schools on what should be taught. We believe that our children should have the chance to study content that is as engaging and stretching as in the best performing countries.

Nick Clegg said: "Liberal Democrats want more teachers and schools to enjoy freedom from Whitehall diktats.

"Under the Liberal Democrats there will be no return to the bad old days of Labour where teachers received a constant barrage of emails, regulations and guidance telling them how to run their school.

"But that does not mean parents and children should not have some basic safeguards.

"There is no reason why a child attending an academy or free school should not enjoy the same basic right to be taught by a qualified teacher or to follow a core curriculum as any other child.

We have given all schools the freedom to attract, retain and reward the best teachers. We have shortened the national curriculum so there is less direction on how to teach. The Pupil Premium is given to schools without strings attached because teachers know better than politicians how best to spend that money.