Tories to make the EBac compulsory

14th April 2015, 4:34pm

The Conservatives will make the English Baccalaureate compulsory in secondary schools should they win the next general election.

The pledge forms part of the party’s election manifesto, and adds that any school that “refuses” to offer the “core subjects” at GCSE could not be judged “outstanding” by Ofsted.

Prime minister David Cameron unveiled the Tory manifesto today at UTC Swindon, and contained in it is the promise to “require secondary school pupils to take GCSEs in English, maths, science, a language and history or geography”, which is effectively the Ebac.

It adds: “Ofsted [will be] unable to award its highest ratings to schools that refuse to teach these core subjects.”

The party also ruled out allowing state schools to make a profit, and committed to continue offering schools the pupil premium at current levels.

The document also reiterated promises to train teachers to deal with poor behaviour in classrooms.

“In the next Parliament, we will expect every teacher to be trained not just in how to tackle serious behaviour issues, but also in how to deal with the low-level disruption that stops children from learning properly,” it states.

In introducing its list of promises on education, the manifesto states that the Conservatives have been “bold” in reforming the education system, claiming it “knows what works in education”.

It continues: “We believe that teaching is a highly skilled profession, and that we need to attract the best graduates into it. And we believe that there is no substitute for a rigorous academic curriculum to secure the best from every pupil.”