Education, education, education

Abstract

© 1998 Helen Jones and Susanne MacGregor, 1998 the contributors. Individual chapters. All rights reserved. With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to argue that education was the major issue of the General Election of 1 May 1997, given that the New Labour government was elected with an overwhelming majority and that Tony Blair, the leader of the Labour Party, had consistently argued throughout the election campaign that ‘Education, education, education’, was the top priority. He targeted in particular the need to improve educational standards ‘for the many, not the few’ and so committed his government to a reduction in the class size of primary schools. Education has been one of the major items on the political agenda over the last two decades but the forms of debate and delivery have changed markedly. This chapter will explore the ways in which education policy had been developed under the Conservative administrations over the previous eighteen years and consider the Labour Party’s counter-proposals, first in opposition and during the general election campaign and second during the first hundred days of Blair’s New Labour government. The education policies adopted by the Liberal Democrats will be addressed briefly.