Summary
ED BALLS, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, today attempts to tackle one of the Government's biggest tasks. This month international tables show Britain's educational performance plummeting by comparison with other countries and Mr Balls's chance of making his mark outside the Treasury depends on how he addresses this challenge.
Two-fifths of pupils now leave primary school without reaching the required level in basic literacy and maths. Mr Balls's proposals include 15 hours a week of free nursery care to two-year-olds from the most deprived families, rightly recognising that the impact of inadequate parenting starts young. This is part of a 10-year Children's Plan, which certainly shows he can think big and his plan for supervised adventure playgrounds is imaginative. However, the plan says too little about the more effective teaching including phonics and improved discipline, which are essential if standards are to rise.See the full content of this document
Extract
Schools Plan: Could Do Better ; Comment
Instead, the Children's Plan offers ambitious schemes to redraw th...
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