Labour candidate for Yeovil Sheena King has launched an attack on Tory plans to create more ‘free schools’.
Sheena says “The Tories have pledged to create 500 more free schools by 2020, (a type of state funded academy not controlled by a Local Authority), but many of the current free schools have been judged inadequate and DO NOT require teachers to have Qualified Teacher Status.”
“There has been a 16% rise in unqualified teachers in the last year! This really will be letting down our children, and all future generations, who deserve the very best free education like most of us had, and who deserve to be taught by fully qualified, continuously trained teachers. Is this really the right way to spend our education budget? I don’t think so and neither do the Labour Party. Instead, we should be focusing on improving standards in our ALL our existing schools and making sure there are enough state school places for every child who needs one, in reasonably sized classes. We must ensure that only fully qualified teachers are allowed to teach in our classrooms. Don’t let the Tories ruin the free education of our children.“