The Generalist Party - A Great Britain

General: The Generalist Party has many aims within education. We aim to work on the structures in place to create a better and developed system that will not only get students more involved in education, but it will also change anything that is not working and introduce policies to improve eduction in Great Britain.

We have policies that will effect students of every age in the different levels of education in this country from Infants to Further and Higher Education. These range from amendments to the assessment criteria within the curriculum to allowances granted to students for maintenance and tuition.

We want to see well equipped and high performing schools across the country, but also want students to enjoy their time in education. We also want to review the timetable to make sure the youth are in school enough to cover everything they will need for their future, whether that means extending term time or less holiday time will have to be looked into.

Exams: The Generalist Party is committed to real change to the way students are assessed in Great Britain.

SAT's; We plan to abolish SAT's as they only serve one purpose, which is to rank the school. With undue pressure and stress on the Student, these exams are not required. A school should be ranked on the standards provided across the board under the OFSTED system.

GCSE, A-Level and Degree Exams; We believe that the exam system in use is out dated and needs serious review. More emphasis is needed on coursework and most exams should be replaced by a timed essay under exam conditions, with 24 hours notice of the question given to the students. This allows them to really show their knowledge and abilities in a subject and not put them under pressure to answer a small number of questions on the many subjects they have covered throughout their studies. We realise the importance that assessment plays in education and would be willing to work closely with teachers to find the best coursework to exam ratio for the assessment of one years study.

Truancy: The Generalist Party is committed to cutting the truancy problem across Great Britain. It is a well known fact that 40,000 students a week do not attend their classes. The best way to challenge this is to create a more adult atmosphere for the students at the same time as giving them something to do during their breaks and lunch.

Sports; Sport subsidies are the best way to get students to actually attend school. We plan on working closely with individual schools to make sure they have adequate facilities and equipment.

These facilities should be available at any reasonable time to the student and not limited to Physical Education lessons. We will also work to create sport leagues in most areas that, not only create some competition in each sport, but also reward those students who have skills in their chosen sport. This will include swimming, football, rugby, tennis and gymnastics.

Adult Treatment; Students want to feel like they are adults, trusted and reliable to oversee their own education and assessments. To support this feeling without losing control of the students we plan on introducing several measures; The first is supporting the creation of several out of class and after school activities that are run by the students themselves. Whilst a teacher would be needed for supervision, there is no reason the students could not create their own newspaper, start their own interest groups and even debate or model government clubs. The other option is to give the teachers extensive training to make sure they can provide the right learning environment for any student, therefore, they must treat the students more like adults.

Citizenship: We want to introduce Citizenship classes to Britain's schools. That means that for 30 minutes a week, the students will learn about prison, drug's, sex and the law. This will help to prepare them for the future and give them necessary information on drugs and crime which they would not learn otherwise. We would look into the best way to assess this course and work with parents and teachers to decide what the curriculum should include.

Teachers: The Generalist Party is committed to creating safe and rewarding working environment for teachers. They provide an important and valuable service to the people of Great Britain. We will work closely with the Teacher Unions to make sure they are paid a fair wage for the job they do and that the best possible training and resources are available to them. After all, no child would get an education without the teachers. We also want to make sure that student's learning is not interrupted by teacher absences and supply teachers. To do this we would look into the best ways to combat this and work with the teachers and schools to try and reduce the number of absent days and supply teachers required.

Finance and Fees: We know that education can be expensive once you reach college. College students need part time jobs in between their studies to be able to socialise and even pay rent or living expenses. University is a stressful time for anyone who wishes to work for a degree, not only do you have living expenses but you also have your study expenses and tuition fee on top of this. We want to make it easier for students in terms of costs and stress, to do this we need to make sure that they have a steady flow of income from a part time job that is not all lost in expenses.

EMA; The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is not adequate enough for college students. Many students are either paying rent at this time whether that be for their own accommodation or to their parents and they should not have to become a social reject because of this. If a young person wants to further themselves by attending college then the government should support that. We therefore will aim to increase the EMA to £10 a day for 100% attendance. This means that for every day a student attends all their classes and do not get reprimanded by their teacher they will receive £10. They can spend this how they want, this should top up the wage they receive from their part time job and pay for rent or allow them to have the social life all students desire.

University; University is a stressful time. Not only does the course they are studying require a lot of hard work and involvement, it can also be very expensive. We feel that the current Grant/Loan system is good but we suggest a minor improvement. This improvement is the independence guideline that is included in the loan and grant process. They need to have been earning their own income for 3 years before they can apply for a loan or grant based solely on their own income and not that of their parents.

We understand that not all parents will be able to afford to support their children, especially if there is more than one. Therefore, we suggest that this be reduced to one year as it is very common that the average student has had their own income for this time. We also plan on a review of the top up fees. This comes from working closely with the universities and discussing the best way to either reduce the top up fee or abolish it completely.