Brown to Attack Blair Over Education

Gordon Brown will attack Tony Blair's education reforms today in an attempt to further distance himself from the Prime Minister. The Chancellor will describe numeracy rates among young children as "unacceptable" for one of the world's leading economies. "It is unacceptable that we still have 150,000 children leaving primary school who aren't numerate. Both a strong economy and an inclusive society require a fully numerate population." Brown will go on to admit that the Labour Government has failed to deliver a "world class" education system.

Blair will not look kindly on this latest strategy in Brown's campaign. When Blair came to power in 1997 he claimed "Education, education, education " was his priority. Today in contrast with Gordon Brown's recent comments, he believes he succeeded. Blair recently said "Education, education, education was how I described my priorities at the outset of this Government. A decade on, this report shows we meant it".

As I said in a previous post regarding Blair's eduaction reforms, it is progress to renovate and build new facilities for students. However, the current problem does not lie with the facilities, but rather with the education they receive inside them.

Mr Brown claims he will try to shift the emphasis of Labour's education policies away from changes to school structures to core activities in the classroom.