Tristram Hunt’s education policy was assumed to be a victim of Ed Milband’s straitjacket. But now, the shadow education is free to speak his mind about where Labour went wrong and his actual thoughts on education policy. On the Today programme this morning, Hunt explained why he was sticking the boot into Miliband for the second time in 24 hours:
‘It’s right that every shadow cabinet member reflects on their area of policy. We suffered a crushing defeat and we need to know what went right and what went wrong. One of the frustrations of the election campaign is that many of the public’s priorities on education — smaller class sizes, better apprenticeships, better qualified teachers in the classroom — were Labour priorities.’
When it was put to Hunt that Labour’s education policy over the last few years was ‘mostly reactive’ and the party was ‘left behind’ by the Tories, he again pointed towards a lack of leadership:
‘It was partly because of leadership from the top. David Cameron, himself having been a shadow education secretary, is interested in education. We needed to be much more focused on that.’
Hunt also sketched out two policy areas he hopes to pursue. Firstly, he wants Labour to focus more on early years and less on tuition fees — something Liz Kendall, his chosen candidate for the leadership, has been talking up recently, but not an area Andy Burnham or Yvette Cooper appear particularly keen to compromise on.
Secondly, Hunt wants to ‘really rethink upper secondary curriculum’ by scrapping GCSEs and replacing them with academic and vocational baccalaureates. ‘In a decade’s time, if we still have GCSEs in Britain, we’ll be completely out of kilter with other European countries’, he said. Interestingly, this is not too dissimilar from a policy Michael Gove pursued during his tenure as Education Secretary — only for the plans collapse under the weight of criticism from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Although Hunt may enjoy his new role as truth teller and radical policy thinker, there is a lack of structure as to how he hopes achieve his plans. If he really wants to move away the ‘over-tested, over-regulated school system’ he claims Britain currently has, Hunt needs to provide some idea of how he intends to do it — assuming he holds the shadow education brief after the leadership contest.
Comments