Today, Prime Minister Theresa May authored an article published in The Telegraph, which of course is also available on the government website.
The article, titled Why I’m giving education a huge boost, explains her ambitious economic and social reforms as enablers for a ‘stronger, fairer and better Britain’.
Ahead of the Spring Budget, which will be delivered tomorrow, the Prime Minister highlights that Government intends on supporting and investing on ‘giving our young people the skills they need to secure the high-paid, high-skilled jobs of the future’ which will spread ‘growth and prosperity to all sections’ and regions of society.
She stresses the importance of primary and secondary schools as the starting point for skills, and continues:
Today the UK is placed 16th out of the world’s 20 developed economies when it comes to how many people have a technical education. So tomorrow this government will set out the biggest overhaul of post-16 education in 70 years with a multi-billion pound drive to improve technical training, including new technical versions of A levels and 900 hours of teaching each year.
Echoing concerns of social mobility high on many agendas recently, the Prime Minister recognises that life chances are largely determined by social and economic background:
I have made it a personal mission to increase the capacity and diversity of the school system so that there is a good school place that caters to the individual needs and abilities of every single child, whatever their background and wherever they live.
Our Schools White Paper coming out in a few weeks will address universities and private schools, asking them to ‘do more to provide new good school places, including by sponsoring new free schools’. The PM adds that she is a ‘passionate advocate’ of free schools, seeing them as ‘the biggest driver of increased diversity and progress in our school system for over the last seven years’.
PM Theresa May ends her article by stating:
If we are to give our children and grandchildren a fair chance to succeed in an ever more competitive world, we have to build a future where every child can access a good school place.