Press Release Tuesday 19 January 2010 from Flick Drummond

Education, education, education

Parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth South, Flick Drummond, welcomes the Conservative draft manifesto on education. Launched yesterday by David Cameron the main area of focus is on the quality of teaching. Flick commented ‘as a former school inspector, it was always obvious that quality of teaching is paramount in the classroom. Everyone can remember the individual teacher that inspired them or put them off a subject and I fear that many teachers today are so burdened by endless form filling and a restrictive curriculum that it is easy to forget how important they are in a child’s life. A good or bad experience at school can affect our whole lives and we must get it right for everyone.’

The draft manifesto makes it clear that flexibility will be given to headteachers to reward good teaching and also to remove teachers who are not performing to high standards. Discipline is to be returned to schools with headteachers being given the power to expel pupils who are troublesome. ‘Disruptive pupils make it very difficult for the rest of the class to concentrate but we must make sure that they are provided with alternative schooling and help so they don’t miss out on education and become isolated from society. I would like to see education becoming a lifelong goal for everyone so that people can continue to learn and develop throughout their lives’, said Flick, ‘we should all be given the chance to correct our mistakes but not at the expense at ruining other people’s learning experience. Our draft manifesto will be good for education in Portsmouth where we have some incredibly hard working inspirational teachers but they need to be given the power and freedom to make learning exciting’.

You can find out more detail about the draft manifesto at the Conservative website www.conservatives.com and can also ask David Cameron questions on the policy.

Ends.

www.portsmouthnews.tv have interviewed me on this subject.