David Cameron struck back in the pre-election class war yesterday, insisting that closing the education gap between rich and poor needed a “brazenly elitist” approach.
The Tory leader said he wanted to make teaching the “noble profession” and would bar students with a poor degree from taking government cash to train for the classroom.
And in what was almost certainly a conscious echo of Labour rhetoric, Mr Cameron said: “Good education is the right of the many not the privileged few.”
Michael Gove, the Shadow Education Secretary, went further in confronting head on claims that the Conservatives’ policies favour the better off.
An incoming Conservative government would be guided by a “moral purpose” to make opportunity more equal, he said adding that it was a ‘scandal’ only 79 boys in receipt of free school meals achieved three ‘A’s at A-level nationwide compared with 175 pupils from Eton alone.
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“It’s a scar on our conscience and we are pledged to reverse it,” said Mr Gove.
Gordon Brown has repeatedly drawn attention to Mr Cameron’s privileged background in recent months, joking that his tax policies were thought up “on the playing fields of Eton”.
However a defiant Mr Cameron said he made no apology for wanting to attract the best-qualified people into state education. The centrepiece of the party’s education manifesto launched today in a school in south London was a plan to allow people to transfer from professions such as banking and law into teaching.
The Tory leader said the key to boosting educational performance was improving the standards of teaching.
“When a child steps through those school gates for the very first time, the most important thing that will determine if they succeed is not their background, or the curricula, or the type of school, or the amount of funding, it’s who the teacher is,” he said.
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“We’re committed to a comprehensive programme of reform to elevate the status of teaching in our country. We want to make it the noble profession - the career path that attracts the best brains, is well-rewarded and commands the most respect.”
The Teach Now programme would build on the success of existing programmes that encourage graduates into classrooms in some of Britain’s most disadvantaged areas, he said.
Mr Cameron said he would make it easier for headteachers to pay more to teachers who work longer hours and produce results in the classroom - and to fire those who perform badly.
He acknowledged that the poor state of the public finances meant that there was a limit to the rewards even good teachers could expect but said there were other ways to improve the quality of education personnel.
And he also promised tougher discipline, with teachers given powers to search pupils, confiscate items and remove disruptive children. Schools will be given the final say over expulsions and teachers will be protected against false allegations of abuse, he said.
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Mr Cameron said a Tory government would “renew the promise of a good education for all in our country”.
He said: “The straightforward truth is that there aren’t enough good schools in our country and we’re failing far too many of our children.”
*Despite the introduction of a teacher appreciation day and pleas by the International Labour Organisation back in 1966 for the status of teachers to be raised, teaching remains a relatively low paid career around the world.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found that most countries pay their teachers less than $70,000 after 15 years of experience.
In the US teachers are paid 96 per cent of the GDP per capita after 15 years whereas in Korea, which has some of the best results internationally at school level, teachers are paid over 200 per cent of the GDP per capita after the same length of service.
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In France, while teachers’ pay is not large, their status is on a par with that of doctors or lawyers. All French teachers are qualified to Masters level.
In Finland, a country the Tories hope to emulate in education policy if they come to power, studies have consistently rated teachers as holding high status.