LABOUR has been accused of caving in to union pressure by scrapping Tory school reforms that helped England soar in global rankings.
Tories last night warned the shake-up could slash pay for over 20,000 teachers by scrapping higher wages in more than 500 academies.
The institutions, free from council control, can currently set their own pay and conditions – but Labour’s Schools Bill would force all to follow the same rigid national pay scale and curriculum.
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott blasted the plan as “educational vandalism,” insisting it would undo years of progress that saw England soar in global rankings.
Respected former schools minister Nick Gibb, who spearheaded the reforms, also said: “Having hoped that Labour would build on the Conservative school reforms which have resulted in significant progress in international league tables, ministers are adopting an ideological agenda which fails to learn lessons from cognitive science.”
He blasted Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson for siding with the ‘progressivist’ approach promoted for years by teaching unions and many education faculties”.
He wrote in The Telegraph: “It chips away at academies’ autonomy by requiring them to teach the new National Curriculum which will emerge from the review Labour set up within weeks of taking office.”
The Bill, due to have its second reading in Parliament today, will also scrap requirements for failing schools to be taken over by new management, a policy the Tories say has been key to turning around struggling classrooms.
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien said: “We can already see from Wales, where Labour have already implemented this agenda, that the results have been catastrophic, with Welsh school results slumping even as schools in England have climbed the international league tables.”
Under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, councils will also be required to keep a register of children not in school, introduce a unique identifying number for each child, and parents will benefit from capped uniform costs and free primary school breakfast clubs.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “This landmark Bill is a crucial step forward in our mission to protect all children, while also supporting parents by putting more money in their pockets as we deliver our Plan for Change and give all children the best start in life.”
