Policies - Education 2010 General Election Manifesto

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

The Christian Party believes that the biblical injunction to “Train up a child in the way he should go…” is of critical importance and relevance to the well being of the United Kingdom, both now and in the future. The Christian Party recognises that education is to be defined as life-long learning, not just for the relatively few years spent in primary and secondary education. Parents should therefore accept that the main responsibility for their children’s upbringing and education rests with them. Instead of looking to educational institutions and other outside agencies to nurture and admonish their children, they should take initial and personal responsibility for them.

However, parents should be in partnership with, and supported by, teachers and other professional educators and trainers; also the relevant education authorities of local and central government.

The ethos and curriculum of Britain’s education system is rooted in our Judaeo-Christian heritage and Constitution. However, for a number of years this has been eroded by determined and deliberate infiltration of the secular humanist and multi-faith agendas. The Christian Party would seek to re-establish the Biblical foundations of education as found in the book of Proverbs. This states the three basic elements of learning:

of which “wisdom is the principal thing.” This should once again form the basis of the life-long learning as stated above.

It is most important for schools to be seen as being there to serve and to enhance their local community, and not the other way round. The Christian Party would review the size of schools in terms of numbers. In particular, their vital role in small towns and rural communities must be recognised, and schools in small towns and rural communities must be kept open and well resourced wherever possible.

Other aspects of the curriculum which have been under attack in recent years would be restored where appropriate to give all students the necessary knowledge and understanding of Britain’s national heritage and her international role. History and Classical subjects would therefore be reinstated in every school, as would the provision of Christian religious education.

Choice

The rising tide of humanist secular education in schools throughout the United Kingdom has meant that the choice of education in line with parental beliefs and wishes is hard to come by. Nowhere is this more evident than within the Christian community.

The Christian Party believes that parents, not the state, should set the agenda for children’s education, within certain parameters. These parameters should include the promotion of patriotism, civic pride, morality, care for others and integrity.

Education should bring about ‘change from the inside’ rather than simply ‘transferring information’. For this to occur, a fundamental change in our education system is required that will provide greater choice and shift it away from the humanist secular model toward a community focussed approach.

To support parents in fulfilling their responsibilities in this area, The Christian Party will introduce an Education Voucher Scheme, enabling parents to choose state, private, or home education for their children.

At present only the rich can afford to choose. The Education Voucher Scheme, where funding for education would follow a child both inside the state sector and the private sector, would extend choice to all. Parents would receive a voucher equivalent to the amount of money the government currently attributes to each state school pupil (approx £5,500 per annum). Parents could then choose to spend the voucher at a school of their choice either within the state sector or the private sector, provided that the annual school fees were not more than twice the value of the voucher.

In keeping with the increased parental choice and responsibility for their children’s nurturing and education, the Christian Party believes that parents should have the right to withdraw their children from controversial areas of the curriculum, particularly PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education).

Discipline

To maintain a structured, secure and disciplined school environment, a wider variety of corrective measures should be made available in schools, including corporal correction with specific safeguards included.

The Christian Party would allow schoolteachers to use reasonable force to maintain discipline in schools and would allow schools to elect to use supervised corporal punishment as a “punishment of last resort” instead of ‘Exclusions’. Importantly, this procedure would include the positive reinstatement of punished pupils.

An undisciplined regime at school prepares young people for a lack of respect for authority outside of school, and can ultimately feed them into the criminal justice system.

With regard to the most disruptive schoolchildren, teachers have been denied effective sanctions. Of the sanctions available there has been an over-use of ‘exclusions’, the consequences of which have been both detrimental and far-reaching.

Exclusions often result in interrupting the parents’ work routine, placing a strain on employer/employee relations. Exclusions can become de facto rewards for misbehaviour with excluded pupils spending the day playing video games and watching television at home whilst their peers are at school. Worst still, exclusions can result in the child roaming the streets whilst his/her peers are at school. This in turn can lead to criminal associations that can prove fatal.

Instead of exclusion other strategies of discipline should be employed, such as isolation from peers within the school premises, detentions and punishment tasks such as clearing litter.

Faith

The Christian Party believes that provision of Christian religious education in schools should be reinstated, with no obligation to promote other faiths.

The obligation to assemble pupils for an act of Christian worship, including the corporate singing of hymns, should no longer be ignored. The Christian Party would ensure that schools fulfil the statutory obligation upon them to assemble pupils for a corporate act of worship of a Christian nature.

The History curriculum should reflect the United Kingdom’s rich Christian heritage. The Science curriculum should reflect the evidence of creation/design in the universe.

Schools should not be forced to change their values by employing those who disagree with those values.

Vocational Training

The Christian Party would promote vocational training in schools, colleges of further education and universities as vital to our modern economy.

Further Education

We would link the funding of courses at colleges of further education and universities to the medium and long term needs of society and the economy.

University Tuition Fees

The Christian Party is fundamentally opposed to the concept of student debt as a means of funding student education and would seek to reverse this trend by publicly funding university tuition fees.

Sex Education

The Christian Party finds the current Labour Government’s plans to introduce sex education to children as young as 5 years old perverse. Labour’s plans will sexualise children at an early age. Furthermore, given Labour’s pro-homosexuality agenda, it is clear that sex education for 5-year-olds will amount to state-sponsored sexual indoctrination. The dictum attributed to Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man”, is all too relevant here.

The Christian Party rejects the premise that school is the only place where sex education can be taught, and will trust parents to educate their children in sexual matters at home, as they feel appropriate. The Christian Party will call for formal sex education classes to be given only to secondary schoolchildren on a parental opt-in basis.

The Christian Party believes that whenever sex education classes are taught in schools, the concepts of chastity before marriage and faithfulness within marriage as the best and safest sexual practice should be promoted.

The Christian Party will call for the end of the mandatory promotion and teaching in schools of homosexuality as a family relationship.

Testing

The current debacle surrounding the Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) is of great concern for both parents and teachers alike. The key question is whether the current system is ‘fit for purpose’, but before that question can be answered, the question of “What is the purpose of school tests? ” must be addressed.

SATs were designed with the dual purpose of assessing schools and assessing pupils. Assessment of the school is tied to league tables. Assessing pupils is tied to gaining entry to a secondary school of choice.

In 2008 the SATs results were blighted by failures in the marking system and were the subject of a series of reports, which expressed concerns about ‘teaching to test’ and the undue pressure that ‘teaching to test’ placed on pupils. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) have now threatened to boycott SATs in protest over their use in compiling league tables.

The Christian Party believes that children must be given a more rounded education than the SATs ‘teaching to test’ regime produces. This can only be achieved by providing children with a happier and stress-free educational experience. The Christian Party would therefore abolish SATS tests, and develop a strategy to prevent the misuse and falsification of school league tables.

Home Schooling

The Christian Party opposes the recommendations of the Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman, particularly the proposals for a formal inspection regime of home educators. The Christian Party believes such inspections are unnecessary, intrusive, and set a dangerous precedent for wider inspection of families by the state.

The Christian Party believes that the current laws relating to home schooling are sufficient. There already exist provisions for local authorities to intervene where they suspect home education is failing. The Badman proposals are a worrying sign that the state believes it knows better than parents what is good for their children. This is not so. The government should reject Graham Badman’s recommendations.

Some parents have to remove their children from state schools because, for example, they have special needs which are not properly addressed. Regulation by the same local authority which has failed their child in school is the last thing parents need.

The Badman recommendations place the inspection of families where children are home schooled in the context of a child protection regime surrounding the detection and prevention of child abuse. This is wrong. Child abuse is a separate issue which local authorities already have wide powers to deal with: it is not related to home education. In fact many parents home educate their children to protect them from the abuse of bullying at school.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that an annual national register of home educators is necessary. Making it a criminal offence not to register is disproportionate. The Christian Party is alarmed at the Labour Government’s continued attempts to take over family life, and will strenuously oppose it.

Christian Party Members of Parliament will:

  • Keep open and resource schools in small towns and rural communities wherever possible.
  • Review the size of schools in terms of numbers.
  • Reinstate the teaching of ‘Classical’ subjects in every school.
  • Introduce an education voucher scheme.
  • Support the use of reasonable force by teachers to maintain discipline in schools.
  • Allow schools to elect to use supervised corporal punishment as a “punishment of last resort” instead of exclusions.
  • Reinstate mandatory Christian religious education in schools.
  • Seek sanctions for schools that refuse to comply with their obligation to assemble pupils for an act of daily worship. Such acts of worship should be Christian.
  • Ensure that the United Kingdom’s Christian heritage is properly reflected in the National Curriculum.
  • Ensure that proper balanced teaching and debate occurs in schools around the concepts of ‘Evolution’ and ‘Creation/Design in the universe’.
  • Ensure that schools are not forced to change their values by employing those who disagree with those values.
  • Promote vocational training in schools, colleges of further education and universities.
  • Link the funding of university courses to the medium and long term needs of society and the economy through consultation with industry and community leaders.
  • Publicly fund university tuition fees.
  • Call a halt to plans to give sex education lessons in Primary Schools.
  • Call for sex education classes to be given only to secondary schoolchildren on a parental opt-in basis.
  • Ensure that chastity before marriage and faithfulness within marriage as the best and safest sexual practice will be taught and promoted as an integral part of any sex education curriculum.
  • Call for the end of the promotion and teaching in schools of homosexuality as a family relationship.
  • Abolish SATs testing.
  • Oppose the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman.

Christian Party Policies

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