Labour has announced plans to invest in local schools and a national education service to ensure no one is held back and create a more skilled workforce and productive economy.
Moreover, the party plans to increase schools funding and introduce free, lifelong education in colleges at the heart of its commitment to create a society run for the many, not the few.
Labour’s key pledges include:
- stopping the cuts to school budgets with a real terms increase in funding
- reducing class sizes to under 30 for all five, six and seven year olds
- providing free school meals for all primary school children
- restoring education maintenance allowance for college students
- restoring student grants for university students
- scrapping fees on courses for adult learners looking to re-train or upskill
The plans will be funded from the £19.4 billion that will be raised by reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to corporation tax. Labour has previously announced extending free school meals to all primary age children will be funded by levying VAT on private school fees.
Cllr Stephen Morgan, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth South, has been campaigning for a better deal for the city’s schools for some time. He’s been pushing for initiatives which give every child in our city the best chance in life.
Stephen has been a governor at two schools in the constituency
“The Tories have failed families with their policies on education. Parents and children across our city deserve better.
In Portsmouth’s primary schools alone, schools are set to lose £240 per pupil under Tory plans. For a primary school of 300 children that means a loss of £72,000. A study by the NUT predicts our city’s schools are expected to lose over £8m in future years, that’s equal to 216 teachers”.
Labour has said they would do things differently. The national education service would transform our schools to ensure a future for the many not the few, with £6bn investment funded by corporate taxes.
Cllr Morgan added:
“As the local candidate from here, for here, I care passionately about our city’s schools. Portsmouth’s schools are where I got my education. It’s where my friends work and my neighbours send their children.
As Portsmouth South’s MP, I will always look out for, and protect, our city’s schools as I have been as a city councillor. It is vitally important our schools are given the support they need”.
