Author Archives: Elizabeth Truss and Laura Kounine

The Independent View: Time for Lib Dems to seize educational reform agenda

By Elizabeth Truss and Laura Kounine | Tue 3rd June 2008 - 9:59 am

Labour’s mantra in 1997 was “education, education, education”, but national exam results show that England is still some way off in providing good universal education.

Most concerning is the lack of grip on mastering the basics – as Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families David Laws has commented, too many students “are still failing to get to grips with the essential subjects of maths and English”. Only 46.7% of students achieved 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C including English and maths last year, and half of employers said they were dissatisfied with the basic numeracy of …

Posted in The Independent View | 6 Comments

Opinion: The academy model should underpin the next stage of education reform

By Elizabeth Truss and Laura Kounine | Mon 25th February 2008 - 4:04 pm

The Labour and Conservative parties have both supported the academies programme as the key driver of educational reform. The Liberal Democrats, in contrast, have been more critical towards academies, ambivalent about their ability to select 10 per cent of pupils by aptitude and their status as a programme of central government rather than of local authorities.

But the Party appears to be revising its position. In his key speech on public sector reform, on 12th January, Nick Clegg said that there is “nothing wrong with allowing schools to exist outside direct daily local government management – as long as …