Schools expert, and Teacher Tapp co-founder, Laura McInerney, joins Sam and Ayesha to speak about Labour’s commitment to recruit extra teachers by removing the VAT exemption on private schools - as well as the party’s other plans on education.
With election fever setting in, The Power Test is not being knocked off course. With just six weeks until a new government will be in place, Sam and Ayesha look in detail about what Labour is offering and whether its plan adds up.
Joined by McInerney, the team look at Labour’s pledge to recruit 6,500 extra teachers, a review of the national curriculum, the role of Ofsted, special needs education, and culture war arguments in schools.
In particular on the planned end to the VAT exemption on private schools, McInerney says “I think they're just going to have to crack on with it. There'll be all kinds of little consequences around it unintended or intended, and they'll just have to live with them. I think it's doable and I think they'll get on with it” and that “Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, is excellent.”
“She gave an absolutely storming speech at one of the head teachers’ union conferences recently which ended with the point that she herself as a kid who was on free school meals in a northern comprehensive school who's gone on and done very well.”
Finally, on the recent sex and relationships battles in the headlines, Labour is encouraged to “just go back to recognising there are real problems, work with people on guidance, make the guidance really clear and change things as you go.”
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