Liz Truss has unveiled herself as the “first education minister” with a plan that includes replacing failing academies with “a new wave of free schools” and improving maths and literacy standards.
The Tory leadership hopeful, whose endorsement from party heavyweights has added to the feeling she is ahead of rival Rishi Sunak in the race for No.10, unveiled a six-pronged strategy on Saturday points “to get the British education system back on track”.
This includes expanding existing high-performing academies, while replacing failing ones with free schools – newly created academies.
Academies are state-funded schools that are independent of local authorities.
In an oft-repeated line from his leadership campaign, Truss said he saw “first-hand how children were being failed and let down by low expectations” during his comprehensive state school in Leeds.
The remarks have previously drawn criticism from the city’s political leaders and former pupils and staff at his old school, Roundhay.
Truss, a former education and childcare minister, also pledged to raise the quality of maths teaching and meet the “target of 90% of primary school children achieving the expected standard in literacy and numeracy “.
The aim is to give working parents access to childcare during the school day and to widen the range of providers who accept the Government’s childcare entitlements.
The foreign secretary also said she would follow through on government plans to change staff-to-child ratios for young children, bringing England in line with Scotland’s ratios – proposals Labor has branded “pathetic”.
Truss, who studied at Oxford, pledged to reform admissions procedures for Oxbridge and other top universities “so that students who get the best grades in their A-levels are automatically invited to apply” .
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Truss said: “My six-point plan will ensure our education system gets back on track by giving every child the tools they need to succeed.
“Through a laser-like focus on improving maths and literacy standards, we will make a real difference to children’s lives and, by giving families more choice and flexibility around childcare, also we’ll save money.”
Truss has previously said he would end the ban on new grammar schools, selective schools that critics say could pull out the brightest pupils but increase overall inequality as other children’s achievement falls.
Sunak has also said he supports its “return”, but is understood to mean the expansion of existing grammar schools.