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Burton Mail > News > Tories
'gambling with education' - Balls

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Tories 'gambling with education' - Balls

by TIM FLETCHER
TORY spending cuts would risk ʻgambling with
childrenʼs educationʼ, a senior Government minister has claimed
during a visit to Burton.

Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and
Families, visited Paulet High School, in Stapenhill, yesterday to
see the improvements made under head teacher Alexander Timms, who is
due to retire in the summer.

Speaking exclusively to the
Mail, Mr Balls said a scheme offering one-on-one tuition to
struggling youngsters, and funding for more sixth form places, were
threatened by the Conservatives’ proposed spending cuts.

He
said: “If you want to keep investment in high quality teachers and
teaching assistants, and to see schools rebuilt and refurbished,
you’ve got to vote Labour.

“The Tories want to cut the
schools’ budget, which would mean fewer teachers and bigger class
sizes. This would be a gamble with children’s education.”

Mr
Balls, who faces a teachers’ revolt over SATs, said he believed
parents welcomed the tests as an indication of the progress being
made by their children.

He said: “In primary schools there is
no measure of how children are doing other than the tests in Year
Six. Parents want to know how their local schools are doing.

“Nothing is set in stone and we’re willing
to reform the structure, but we’re not going to take away something
which allows parents access to really important
information.”

Mr Balls, who was accompanied by Burton MP
Janet Dean and the seat’s prospective parliamentary Labour
candidate, Ruth Smeeth, slammed Tory plans to raise the threshold
for inheritance tax, claiming it would ‘benefit almost no-one in
Burton’.

He claimed opinion polls, which show his party
trailing the Conservatives, were ‘narrowing’ and brushed off talk of
his prospects as a potential successor to the Prime Minister, Gordon
Brown.

He said: “People would think we had lost our marbles
if we were thinking about our own career ambitions rather than the
election. The only poll I’m fighting is the General
Election.”

Mr Timms, who was presented by Mr Balls with a
plaque to mark his 30 years at Paulet, said he was ‘proud’ that his
school had been the subject of a ministerial visit.

He said:
“I found Mr Balls to be a considerate, interested and caring
gentleman. His conversations with the children were a delight to
hear. They all warmed to him and talked very openly about their
futures.”

Under Mr Timms’ headship, Paulet has seen the
proportion of youngsters attaining five or more GCSEs at A* to C
grades rise from 15 per cent in 1998 to 67 per cent last year.

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Story First Published: 28/01/2010
18:03:33

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