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EDUCATION PROMISES SHOULD BE KEPT

Dear Ed,

For many years both the Government and the Local Education Authority (LEA) have consistently promoted parental freedom of choice for schools. Indeed this is enshrined within the various Education Acts.

You can imagine my surprise when the LEA want to curtail that right locally.

That right is to send your child to a Church School, but there is o­nly o­ne in the area, and that is Selsted School.

Does anyone remember the myriad of promises made at the last General and County Elections. No, probably not, but I do remember o­ne, about keeping and expanding religious education and I quote:

'A commitment to a major expansion of faith schools is absolutely at the heart of the Conservative vision for better education in the 21st.century.

Parents want them. Children benefit from them. Society is stronger for them.

Conservative policy is for the state to support these provided they accept Ofsted inspection and teach the national curriculum.'. This was all proposed by the then Tory Education spokesman Tim Collins who went o­n to promise a major expansion of religious schools.

This was understood by many to be a major platform by which Michael Howard (Conservative Party Leader and our own MP) and thus the Tories fought both the General and County Elections locally and nationally.

The means by which such a policy is enacted is through the LEA, which in our case is Conservative controlled.

I do hope these were not promises made to curry favour with our urban cousins to lure them away from the Labour Party and were not meant for implementation in the rural hinterland.

I must make it perfectly clear that I have no religious agenda, just an old fashion belief that promises made, should be honoured.

Colin Tearle Chairman Swingfield Parish Council