June 21st 2012 - Clark welcomes Gove conversion to UKIP policy on 'O' levels

21 June 2012

Tags: , ,

Clark welcomes Gove conversion to UKIP policy on 'O' levels          

'...now bring back grammar schools too ...'


                                                      - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

                                        

                                                                 UK Independence Party

                                         From the Office of Derek Clark, MEP, East Midlands

                                       Rowan House, 23 Billing Road, Northampton NN1 5AT 

 

Tel: 01604 620064     Fax: 01604 636002

Email: mep@derekclarkmep.org.uk

Web: www.derekclarkmep.org.uk

June 21st, 2012

Ref: 115

 

 

 

THE area's MEP has urged the Government to continue to read UKIP's education policies.

 

East Midlands UKIP MEP and the party's spokesman on education, Derek Clark, said: "We are delighted Michael Gove has been cribbing from our manifesto but would encourage him to read a bit more. He should turn to the page where it says, 'Restore Grammar Schools'.

 

"The new 'O' levels must be constructed in consultation with universities and teachers, after all between them they both teach and implement the results.

 

"It is a bit silly however of the Conservative Party to ask for higher academic standards while at the same time being opposed to the creation of new grammar schools.

 

"UKIP would like to see growth of a nationwide network of new grammar schools to complement the renewed 'O' level examination system."

 

Mr Clark, a former teacher himself, went on to say: "Properly trained teachers do not need to be told what to teach. Experienced head teachers work out their own balance of subjects. Support and help for both come from the core of experienced officers which Local Authority Education Departments always had - school governors are not required. 

 

"The GCSE was a worthy replacement but the excellent work done by teachers in producing it was undone by those elsewhere who extended it to the whole ability range at 16, which was never the intention.

 

"Hence 'dumbing down', which then had to extend upwards to 'A' levels and to degree courses, in turn, wrecking the whole system."  

 

Notes:

 

UKIP Education policy 2010:

 

"As 'O' level examinations are still being produced in Britain... we will immediately restore the 'O' level's status as an approved qualification and allow British schools to reintroduce them as an alternative if they so desire.

 

If the GCSE is worth retaining in anything like its present form, the grades need to be reassessed, being divided into different categories of 'pass', and the bottom grades being unambiguously called 'fail'. UKIP will initiate a study as to the feasibility of returning over time to the 'O' level system alongside more practical NVQ-style examinations, which would offer a more realistic test of ability for less academic children."

 

About Us:

 

The UK Independence Party exists because none of the old traditional political parties are prepared to accept that the real government of Britain is now being transferred to Brussels.

Our purpose is to restore the authority for governing Britain to our elected parliament in Westminster. We believe that decisions made on behalf of people are made closest to the people, be they local, national or international decisions, which informs our wide-ranging manifesto covering issues right across the political spectrum