Tag Archives: education policy

Jean-François Burford

Education in 2050: Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Schools

By Jean-François Burford | Mon 23rd March 2026 - 9:45 am

Imagine a classroom where every student is learning something different, guided by technology that adapts instantly to their needs. Some collaborate with peers across the world, while others receive tailored support from artificial intelligence tutors. The teacher is no longer delivering a single lesson to the whole class, but acting as a mentor, supporting creativity, discussion, and critical thinking. This is not a distant fantasy, but a realistic picture of education in 2050.

The schools of the future will look very different from those many of us remember. Traditional models: rows of desks, fixed timetables, and a heavy reliance on memorisation; are already evolving. By 2050, education is likely to be more personalised, more connected, and more closely aligned with the demands of a rapidly changing world. The challenge for governments today is not whether change will come, but whether they are prepared to shape it.

A defining feature of future education will be personalised learning. Advances in artificial intelligence will allow lessons to adapt in real time to each student’s progress. Instead of moving at the same pace, learners will receive support or acceleration as needed. This approach has the potential to make education both more effective and more equitable, ensuring that no student is left behind or held back.

Technology will also transform the role of teachers. Rather than serving primarily as sources of information, teachers will increasingly become facilitators of learning. Digital tools will assist with grading, feedback, and routine tasks, freeing up time for educators to focus on developing students’ creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. In this way, technology will enhance, rather than replace, the human element of teaching.

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Mark Valladares

18 November 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th November 2025 - 11:57 pm
  • Highest number of 8 hour waits at A&E in 2025
  • Scot Lib Dems call for action on Alzheimer’s and dementia
  • Rennie: Scottish education deserves better than third decade of SNP
  • Government must set out support for workers at Mossmorran
  • McArthur: Prison crisis shows every sign of getting worse
  • Rennie: Housing Secretary has some nerve as heating bill dropped

Highest number of 8 hour waits at A&E in 2025

Responding to new figures showing only 61.5% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 9th November 2025 (11,020 waited more than 4 hours, the highest in 2025), while 4,532 people waited over 8 hours (the highest in 2025) and 2,181 waited over 12 hours, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Under the SNP it feels like every week at A&E is breaking a some kind of record for long waits. We are now seeing the highest number of people waiting over 8 hours of the entire year.

With the cold snap of the last few days we can be under no misapprehension that winter has now arrived, yet the SNP have squandered the months it had to prepare and left our A&E departments in a perilous state.

The Scottish Government needs to start taking serious action to support the staff facing these pressure cooker conditions. Scotland’s A&E patients deserve better – and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for change with fairness at its heart.

Scot Lib Dems call for action on Alzheimer’s and dementia

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today called for the Scottish Government to make sure people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias don’t fall through the cracks as new figures confirmed that they now account for around one in 10 of all deaths.

New figures published today by the National Records of Scotland show:

  • There were 6,612 deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias registered in Scotland in 2024. This is one of the leading causes of death in Scotland, accounting for around one in 10 of all deaths.
  • After adjusting for age, there were 122 deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias per 100,000 people in Scotland in 2024. This rate has almost doubled over the last two decades.
  • Almost two-thirds (64%) of deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias were females and 36% were males.

Delegates at the Scottish Liberal Democrat autumn conference recently backed a motion calling for the Scottish Government to urgently establish minimum national care standards and entitlements for Scots with dementia.

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Mark Valladares

5 June 2024 – the Scottish and Welsh press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 5th June 2024 - 11:15 pm
  • Scottish Liberal Democrats launch plans to end SNP’s sewage scandal
  • Rennie responds to SNP’s national education agency announcement
  • “Vaughan Gething must go” – Welsh Lib Dems react to no confidence result

Scottish Liberal Democrats launch plans to end SNP’s sewage scandal

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain have today said the SNP Government is “neck-deep in failure” as they launched their party’s plans to clamp down on sewage dumping in Scotland’s rivers during a campaign visit to the River Almond.

Research by the party shows that sewage was dumped in the River Almond for a total of 148 hours in 2023 alone. This figure could be much higher as only one part of the river is monitored for sewage overflows. Residents living near the Almond claim that the water has become discoloured, stating that “foaming and fungus” had appeared in its surface.

Across Scotland, there were more than 21,000 sewage dumps logged in 2023 alone, up from 19,676 in 2022. However, the problem is likely to be far worse because only a small fraction of sewage discharges are monitored.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have launched plans for a Clean Water Act that would see:

  • Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated;
  • Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction;
  • A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers;
  • A complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.

The proposals for Scotland are part of a UK-wide campaign by the Liberal Democrats to clean up waterways and get governments to take action.

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Mark Valladares

19 June 2020 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th June 2020 - 8:15 am

Govt must guarantee schools’ funding boost isn’t at expense of anything else

Responding to news that the Government has announced plans, including a tutoring scheme, to help pupils catch up on lost learning as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 crisis, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran said:

These initiatives need to form part of a wider national plan agreed with teachers, experts, unions and others. The plan must be flexible and work for school leaders’ circumstances on the ground. Top-down initiatives with funding tied to them won’t make a big enough difference if schools are unable to fully

…

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Mark Valladares

27 June 2019 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 27th June 2019 - 11:58 pm

Johnson pandering to Farage over immigration

Responding to Boris Johnson’s promises to investigate an ‘Australian-style’ policy for immigration, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said:

Immigration has been a great thing for our country. But politicians like Johnson have vilified those coming to help build and contribute to our great country for their own political gain in the Brexit debate.

Yet businesses across the country are already having to deal with acute shortages of staff thanks to the Brexit uncertainty, and this proposal from our potential next PM does nothing to solve that. If implemented, an Australian-style visa cap would

…

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Mark Valladares

22 June 2019 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Sat 22nd June 2019 - 10:45 am

Tory leadership contenders must reverse school cuts

Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran will today use a speech at the ‘Together for Education Rally’ in Westminster to call on the Conservative Party leadership contenders to reverse cuts to schools.

According to the campaign, 91% of schools have suffered per-pupil funding cuts in real terms since 2015. It would cost £2.2 billion to bring funding back up to 2015 levels.

In a bid to reverse these cuts, parents, MPs, councillors and trade unionists will meet in London this Saturday for the Together for Education rally.

Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran …

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The Voice

Moran: Time to end ‘teaching to the test’ culture

By The Voice | Mon 15th April 2019 - 10:30 pm

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran today used a speech at the National Education Union to demand an end to the ‘teaching to the test’ culture by scrapping league tables, Ofsted and high-stakes testing in primary schools.

Speaking at the conference, Ms Moran warned that the Government cannot create an education system that gives every child the “opportunity to flourish” when teachers are “over-worked, under-paid and pressured to the point of sickness.”

Ms Moran also encouraged delegates to contribute to her newly launched independent Education Commission’s call for evidence. The Commission intends to develop a vision for the school system of …

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The Voice

15 March 2019 – yesterday’s press releases

By The Voice | Sat 16th March 2019 - 8:06 am

Lib Dems call on retailers to scrap the gender price gap

To mark World Consumers Rights Day, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine has written to major cosmetic manufacturers and retailers across the UK as part of her campaign to scrap the gender price gap.

Commenting on her campaign, Ms Jardine said:

We are a quarter of the way through 2019 and still men and women pay different prices for the same basic products. This is entirely unacceptable.

For World Consumer Rights Day I am writing to the most prominent cosmetic manufacturers and retailers across the UK to ask them to change their outdated

…

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Mark Valladares

4 December 2018 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 4th December 2018 - 11:30 pm

It perhaps tells you all that you need to know about the state of our politics when the Government is found to have acted in contempt of Parliament and yet, hours later, nobody has resigned. But you can guess what’s dominating today…

  • Lib Dems demand urgent action on prisons crisis (already covered here)
  • UK can get out of Brexit mess
  • Moran: Govt is fostering a culture of senseless competition in our schools
  • Cable: Legal advice must be published urgently
  • Parliament wins back control, but people must have their say
  • Cable: Bring country together with a People’s Vote

UK can get out of Brexit mess

Responding to the …

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Mark Valladares

22 November 2018 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd November 2018 - 11:40 pm

Our Press Team have been incredibly busy today, so much so that I’m going to have to deal with this in two parts, both of which are going to be larger than usual. So, without further ado…

  • Lib Dems: Levels of homelessness an ‘absolute disgrace’ (see article here)
  • Tory paralysis failing domestic abuse victims
  • Health Sec knows UK in critical condition
  • PM’s deal goes from fudge to farce
  • Tory bucket list for pupils ‘an insult’
  • Lamb: Tories must not neglect young people with mental illness

    • (see article here)

  • Davey: Reducing climate-changing gases demands real leadership

Tory paralysis failing domestic abuse victims

Responding to official statistics published …

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Mark Valladares

1 November 2018 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 1st November 2018 - 8:00 pm

We’ve got a veritable torrent of press releases today, starting with an example of the Party being rather more radical than Labour…

Cable: £1.3 billion for higher-rate payers should be used to reverse welfare cuts

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will be voting against the Government’s plans to raise the higher-rate tax threshold to £50,000.

The policy – announced in Monday’s budget – will cost an estimated £1.3 billion pounds next year, money which could instead be used to reverse cuts to Universal Credit or end the benefits freeze a year early.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince …

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Ben Andrew

Let’s scrap external exams

By Ben Andrew | Thu 20th September 2018 - 12:45 pm

When it comes to education policy, we need blue sky thinking. And I think that scrapping external exams would be a fantastic example of this.

Let’s remind ourselves of some of the negative consequences of our exam system:

  1. Stress – Student wellbeing is considered collateral damage. Having yearly exams which have such a huge impact on your life is incredibly stressful, and I doubt that adults would cope any better than teenagers do. We are sacrificing our young people to a system which we know is harming their mental health, but which we

…

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Paul Hindley

A 21st-Century Liberal Approach to Education

By Paul Hindley | Thu 10th May 2018 - 2:39 pm

Education has always been of special importance for liberals and Liberal Democrats throughout the ages. It has been one of the best vehicles for enabling individuals to obtain their full potential, develop their talents and make the most of the opportunities that they are presented with. It is with this in mind that Helen Flynn and John Howson’s chapter is so warmly received in the latest publication from the Social Liberal Forum, ‘Four Go In Search of Big Ideas’.

Flynn and Howson rightly place great emphasis on the need to improve early years education. They call for a highly funded early years sector that is equipped with the staff necessary to develop the learning of schoolchildren and identify any potential barriers that they may face in future learning. These teachers would need to be well educated and properly trained. The authors identify that educational inequalities emerge even before children start their formal education at the age of five. The socio-economic inequalities faced by children from the poorest backgrounds need to be tackled with extra funding from the very beginning.

Flynn and Howson propose a professional College of Teaching that would be a watchdog for professional standards in education in a similar way that the British Medical Association is in regard to the NHS. This is very much needed if the public is to continue to have faith in the professionalism and high standards of the UK’s education sector. In a similar vein, Flynn and Howson also suggest having Chief Education Officer in government who would help to guarantee best practice and develop evidence-based policy.

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Kirsten Johnson

Sure Start centre closures hit vulnerable families hardest

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 5th April 2018 - 9:20 am

One of my main election platforms last year when running for Oxfordshire County Council was the closure of our local children’s centre. I’m glad to report that it has re-opened as a community initiative, run by a committee of volunteers.

But that is not the case in many areas of the country. Research published today by the Sutton Trust and conducted by academics from Oxford University shows that as many as 1,000 Sure Start centres have closed since 2009, with 69% of local authorities reporting a budget decrease in the last two years.

Professor Kathy Silva, one of the authors of the “Stop Start” report, writes

We surveyed local authorities across the country and found reductions in senior staff and ‘hollowing out’ of open-access services, the kinds of non-stigmatising activities aimed at all families in the surrounding neighbourhood and not just those on the books of Social Services.

…Hard-pressed local authority officials described that cuts necessitated a major shift away from open access activities such as Stay & Play or Rhyme Time, to statutory duties of child protection or social work support for families whose children are ‘at risk’.

‘Stop Start’ has five key recommendations, one of which is

Children’s centres should reconnect with their original purpose. Shifting the balance too far towards referred children and families, away from open access, and merging children’s centres into preventative teams working with a very much wider age group, serves a very different function and requires very different skills. It does not seem to fit well under the label of a local ‘children’s centre’. A good mix of children is important for social mobility and children’s social development.

This report follows on last year’s paper Closing Gaps Early, which analysed the role of early years policy in promoting social mobility. As the party who introduced free school meals, the pupil premium and shared parental leave, we understand that children need a good start in life. Equalising opportunity is key in fighting societal inequalities. The Closing Gaps Early report states:

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Thomas Moule

Corbyn is wrong to state that education is not about personal advancement

By Thomas Moule | Tue 31st October 2017 - 2:15 pm

Embed from Getty Images

Governments should empower individuals to lead fulfilling lives. This principle is a cornerstone of liberal ideology and nowhere is it more important than in education policy. Whilst in government, The Liberal Democrats empowered disadvantaged pupils by providing schools with extra money to give these individuals the same life chances as their more advantaged peers. We empowered skilled young people by expanding apprenticeships- a move which recognised the rich diversity of talent and ambition we have in our society. Our policies for empowering individuals through education continue to be one of our greatest strengths. But not everyone agrees that the purpose of education is to empower people.

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Helen Flynn

Opinion: Getting back to sanity – EBC plans now dropped

By Helen Flynn | Fri 8th February 2013 - 12:51 pm

The news about the abandonment of the EBC is to be welcomed by all interested in a progressive and inclusive education system. Is this beginning of the end of the regular Gove-ian, back of the envelope initiatives, which seem to have little to do with evidence-based, rigorous research and planning, and more to do with a kind of “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”, personal take on what makes for a good education? Somehow I doubt that. But at least it’s a start.

The education world has been suffering from major shock and awe style reforms and promises (threats?) of reform, such as EBCs …

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