PM: Urgent classroom reforms needed to produce 'good citizens'

Change needed: Urgent classroom reforms needed to produce 'good citizens'
12 April 2012

Urgent classroom reforms are required to produce a new generation of "good citizens", David Cameron will say today in the wake of recent riots.

The Prime Minister will signal that discipline, rigour and "elitism" must prevail to mend Britain's "broken society" and ensure future economic success.

Opening one of the first wave of free schools, Mr Cameron will also insist that both coalition parties share a "passion" for free schools.

Tory MPs have complained that the Liberal Democrat coalition partners have watered down the keynote policy amid claims they wield too much influence.

"We've got to be ambitious if we want to compete in the world," Mr Cameron will say in a speech which forms part of a concerted effort to focus attention on education.

"When China is going through an educational renaissance, when India is churning out science graduates any complacency now would be fatal for our prosperity.

"And we've got to be ambitious, too, if we want to mend our broken society.

"Because education doesn't just give people the tools to make a good living - it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens."

While everyone was agreed on the desired outcome, he will complain, "for years we've been bogged down in a great debate about how we get there.

"Standards or structures? Learning by rote or by play? Elitism or all winning prizes? These debates are over because it's clear what works.
"Discipline works. Rigour works. Freedom for schools works. Having high expectations works. Now we've got to get on with it - and we don't have any time to lose."

Free schools - set up by parents, teachers, faith groups, charities and others outside of local authority control - have proved controversial.

Liberal Democrat activists last year voted overwhelmingly against the Tory-led policy - warning it would prove socially divisive.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg sought to ease fears last week, insisting he would not allow the schools to be run for profit and that the next wave should all be in deprived areas.

Some Conservative MPs have complained that the junior partner is exercising too much sway over keynote party policies within the power-sharing administration.

Mr Cameron will use his speech to tell them: "A free school is born of a real passion for education - a belief in its power to change lives.

"It's a passion and a belief this coalition shares. We want to want to create an education system based on real excellence, with a complete intolerance of failure."

The first 24 free schools are opening this month with a second wave to be announced within the next few weeks.

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