ÃÛÌÒÉçÇø response to Labour’s fifth national mission.
Following Keir Starmer’s announcement of Labour’s ‘opportunities’ pillar, our Education Policy Programme Manager, Laura Daly, discusses the policy launch and outlines our assessment.
In opening, Labour’s education policy proposals are encouraging. It is important at this stage in the electoral process to have a discussion around the future of education – always a key manifesto pledge for all parties – to ensure our system is fit for purpose and prepares learners for life.
We want to see a modern, relevant, representative curriculum that forms part of a broad and balanced diet for learners, so we welcome Labour's stated intention to launch a review of the science curriculum.
It is crucial that learners achieve a solid level of scientific literacy, receive a grounding in practical skills and knowledge, as well as gaining an awareness of our society’s biggest challenges, not least on climate change and sustainability. All of these factors should be central features of any revised chemistry curriculum.
We continue to advocate for equity between vocational and academic routes. As part of this, Labour’s support for T-levels is welcome, alongside the signal that changes to the wider landscape should be paused to fully assess the impact of defunding existing applied general qualifications.
We want all learners to be aware of the potential rewarding careers and pathways in chemistry – with the changing vocational science qualification landscape it is vital that learners are given up-to-date, clear advice on their choices. We are supportive of plans to boost careers advice by training new advisors.
Plans to introduce a “Teacher Training Entitlement" are equally welcome. High-quality subject-specific training and development should be an ongoing entitlement for all teachers, whatever stage they are in their teaching career. However, many schools across the UK have understaffing problems with specialist chemistry teachers – a clear plan needs to be put in place to address this shortfall.
While today’s announcement is optimistic, we would like to see more detailed plans for improving the retention of teachers. High teacher workload, stress, and poor student behaviour are some of the biggest contributing factors to chemistry teachers looking to leave the profession, as our recent teacher research demonstrates.
The follow-up to our teaching survey will be released later in the year and we will continue to examine the education landscape in the lead up to the next general election, to raise the voices of science teachers and to advocate that all children have access to an excellent chemistry education, irrespective of the party in power.