Lord Bates accuses Labour of failing poor children

Mar 11 2010 by William Green, The Journal

A SENIOR Tory has accused Labour ministers of failing the poorest North East children.

Shadow schools minister Lord Bates spoke out as peers debated the new Children, Schools and Families Bill.

It promises specific guarantees for parents and pupils, and provides means of redress if expectations are not met.

Every pupil from Year Seven is being promised a personal tutor to help their progress and one-to-one tuition for struggling students from September.

But Lord Bates said: “Coming from an inner-city part of Tyneside, I have a lifelong belief in the power of education to narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged and most advantaged in society.

“It is one of the most important instruments a civilised society can use to narrow that gap.”

In his case, he said it only began to be narrowed in Gateshead when the Thatcher Government established a city technology college when just 10% of local pupils stayed on.

The school now regularly sends 63% of children to top universities, including Oxbridge – “nailing the myth” that poor people could not achieve academic success.