Political Focus, with Bill Jacobs

BRITAIN'S schools are under pressure to raise standards but the person the nation's teachers are keenest to mark is Education Secretary David Blunkett.

He is generally considered to be one of the successes of the new cabinet.

His blindness has proved no bar to his identifying the key problems facing Britain's school system.

By his readiness to accept the idea of 100 per cent student loans and to charge them tuition fees of £1,000, he has shown himself ready to think the unthinkable and prepared to face controversy.

He has already built on his Tory predecessor Gillian Shephard's thawing of frosty relations with the teachers' unions.

There have been a flurry of speeches and announcements on the subject of school standards.

Mr Blunkett has made it clear that traditional emphasis on the three Rs will take precedence over trendy teaching methods.

But he has also made it clear that schools must be innovative and exciting places to learn.

There is much talk of computers and new technology.

There is much praise for the role of the teaching profession but a healthy determination to root out and sack its lazy or incompetent members.

Mr Blunkett talks of cash for crumbling schools. He says money must be found to ensure good teachers stay in the classroom and do not disappear into the woodwork as administrators.

He speaks of the need for leadership from heads and of making sure they are qualified and trained for the job.

It's all splendid stuff. But there is a strong suspicion that there is much rhetoric, lots of frantic action but little real meat.

One move is already an undoubted success.

The policy of scrapping the assisted places scheme - where government cash pays for ordinary families to send their children to top independent schools - was attacked by the opposition and the schools themselves as depriving ordinary kids of a top class education.

But now a group of independent girls' schools is setting up a bursary scheme to provide cash scholarships to fill the gap.

Privately many senior Labour figures have always maintained that the scheme was a subsidy to independent schools with the taxpayer stumping up the money for the scholarships they would otherwise have provided themselves.

This assessment now seems correct and cash has been released to get infant class sizes to under 30 nationwide.

In addition the government has earmarked £1 billion to give schools, governors and education authorities more cash in the coming financial year. And there is £1.3 billion over four years to spend on repairs and maintenance for crumbling schools.

But cynics in the profession think this is a drop in the ocean.

David Hart of the National Association of Head Teachers has said a major increase in their salaries of between £20,000 and £40,000 is needed to end the crisis where hundreds are leaving the profession with too few good candidates wishing to take their place

In addition he and many heads want urgent action to slash the huge burden of paper work that keeps many heads out of the classroom and tied up in their office instead of providing leadership to their staff - most of all in small rural schools.

To pay for the extra money to keep good teachers in the classroom and out of administration will also require large sums in the long term.

Good teachers require the charisma of a stage star, the presence of a Rambo, the intellect of an Einstein and the patience of Job. Such qualities can command far more in the commercial sector than in education.

While the extra cash already released to schools is welcomed there is a horrible feeling that all the many strategies to raise standards will founder because much more is needed.

A key area is providing resources so that schools in deprived urban areas can make up for the lack of home backing that middle class children get before they attend the select band of state schools that their parents ensure they can attend.

Tony Blair is not the only well-educated parent to exploit the rules to ensure that his child goes to a top quality grant maintained school rather than the local authority one round the corner.

He had said the priorities of his government would be "education, education, and education."

But many within the state system believe that as part of that, there is a grave need for "money, money, money".

They will stagger on for two years under Chancellor Gordon Brown's pledge to work within Tory spending plans.

But after that they believe they deserve the reward of extra cash to really rebuild a state education system.

If Mr Blair and Mr Brown cannot find it, their truce with the teachers will be broken and their chances of fulfilling one of the key pledges on which the Prime Minister says his government must be judged after five years in office will be slim.

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