Education system failing pupils says Clegg

6.31.14pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 26th Jun 2008

Nick Clegg says that the education system is failing pupils.

The Government's 'one size fits all' approach to schools is failing thousands of pupils by not providing a personalised education, says Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg.

Nick Clegg has set out plans to give schools greater freedom, allowing them to tailor education to the needs of their pupils. He proposes:

• Scrapping mandatory national tests for seven and 14 year olds, with the money saved put into early assessment at age five and a huge expansion of one-to-one reading and numeracy tuition.

• Abolishing the overly prescriptive national curriculum and replacing it with a shorter document, and allowing all schools the curriculum freedoms currently enjoyed by Academies.

• Taking the politics out of the day-to-day management of schools by establishing an independent Education Standards Authority and slashing the size of the central government department by half.

• Changing targets so that schools are incentivised to address the needs of all pupils, not just those 'borderline' pupils.

In his keynote speech on education, Nick Clegg said:

"We need to take the politics out of the day-to-day, and term-to-term management of schools. We need to strip Ministers of their power to meddle and micro-manage, and give them a new strategic role. And we need government to stop being so afraid of diversity.

"There is nothing wrong with different schools being different from one another. In fact, when the system encompasses difference, schools can learn from others' success, and improve together, in a way that is impossible when uniformity is imposed from above."

Setting out plans to take powers away from the central Government department, he said:

"The Department for Children, Schools and Families would be halved in size. It would focus only on setting the broad strategic goals of the education system, and the legal frameworks. And ministers would have to stop sending their regular diet of directives and diktats to schools. In fact I'd ban them from doing it - with an Education Freedom Act.

"An Educational Standards Authority would be a powerful body: with independent oversight of exam standards; with responsibility for schools inspection, incorporating the existing OFSTED; and with responsibility for commissioning research on good educational practices and disseminating advice on best practice to schools.

Proposing to abolish mandatory national testing at seven and 14, Nick Clegg said:

"By scaling back some of the excessive national testing - at Key Stages 1 and 3 in particular - we will save millions of pounds. And the money can be put directly into improving basic skills for those who presently fall behind from day one, and never catch up.

"My intention is to use testing to target support - not merely to target criticism. One to one tuition for 5, 6 and 7 year olds has been shown to have huge benefits."