A Letter to the KM Editor 29th April 2008

Written by Guy Voizey, Parliamentary Spokesman, Canterbury and Whitstable Liberal Democrats on Wed 23rd Jul 2008

The controversy over Ed Balls' (Secretary of State for Children) recent statement about three local schools highlights a very important point - management of our education system is much too centralised.

His statement about the three schools was rightly condemned by Martin Vye, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on children on Kent County Council, for being out of touch with reality. That's Mr Balls' problem - he can only make statements based on nationally collated statistics. The recent debacle over the SATs tests show how risky that is.

We need less national interference in education. The current rigid and over-prescriptive national curriculum should be torn up and be replaced by a much more flexible version, to give power back to teachers. League tables based on a crude test system should be abolished. But most of all, the government should trust all our headteachers to manage their own schools, rather than overburden them with bureaucracy. That's the best way to raise education standards.

Guy Voizey

Parliamentary Spokesman

Canterbury and Whitstable Liberal Democrats

6 Railway Avenue

Whitstable