PM’s pledges on education

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Meet the PM

Friday 29 February 2008

Our goal is that every child should have the best start in life, so:

In 2008, we will open 600 more Sure Start Children’s Centres, providing childcare, health-care, early education and family support to almost half a million more children
This is so that in 2010 there will be 3500 Children’s Centres, one in every community in England.

We are committed to increasing standards in the classroom, so:

In 2008 on top of their per pupil funding we will give an average of £220,000 directly to every head-teacher in Britain, and an average £50,000 to every primary school head, which can be used to modernise our schools and expand one-to-one and small group tuition
In 2009, 20,000 children will receive intensive reading support and every school not meeting our minimum standard for GCSE results will be on a clear path to improvement or closure.
By 2010-11, we will have opened more than 320 rebuilt or refurbished schools as part of Building Schools for the Future, 200 academies will be open or in the pipeline, and in this year personal catch-up tuition will be given to 300,000 pupils in English and 300,000 pupils in Maths.

Access to higher education or vocational training should depend on ability, not ability to pay, so:

In 2008/09, 250,000 16 year-olds from low-income families will be guaranteed government support to do A-levels or diplomas and go on to university.
In 2009, 16,000 more people will be starting apprenticeships than 2008.
From 2011 around 600,000 university students will be entitled to a maintenance grant