Hunt says Labour would end “exam factory” schooling and give more freedom to teachers

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt will today explain that Labour would end the “exam factory vision of recent years” for schools and give “teachers and school leaders the freedom and autonomy to deliver an exciting education”.

He’ll also attack the “alpha male compulsion to see everything through the prism of your ‘reforming legacy’ – a not-so-subtle attack on former Education Minister Michael Gove.

In a speech to the Association of School and College Leaders today, Hunt is expected to say:

“The cult of the big reformer. A sort of alpha male compulsion to see everything through the prism of your ‘reforming legacy’.

The existing model of school improvement is creaking at the seams. The idea that if we just raise the targets, stamp our feet and demand a bit more, then every child will fulfil their potential is now, surely, approaching its end stages.

“We have to chart a course – carefully, slowly, consensually – away from the narrow, ‘exam factory’ vision of recent years.

“England’s demographic surge affords us a tremendous opportunity to do something different. We need to build scores of new schools in areas of need.

“So, this is a chance to rethink some of the fundamentals of the industrial model of schooling. Embrace new pedagogies. Experiment with new curricula.

“Place some of those remarkable new digital technologies at the service of the 21st-century teacher.”

He will also outline how Labour would make it easier for schools to leave academy chains. As it stands funding agreements tend to run for seven years, Labour want to reduce this to around five years. They also want to work off the Bosman ruling for football, which allows players to leave clubs at the end of their contract without paying a transfer fee. Labour would like to apply this same principle to schools in academy chains.

In addition to this, Hunt will say that he’d like to invite education practitioners from across the globe – including from Singapore and Finland – to open new schools in places where school standards are low.