Cameron opens free school with 'elitist' speech
PM backs higher standards, greater independence for schools and 'confronting educational failure head-on' as he opens one of the first free schools today.
David Cameron will identify discipline, "freedom for schools" and "high expectations" as the key factors that make for a good education system as he opens one of the first "free" schools today.
"We want to create an education system based on real excellence, with a complete intolerance of failure," the prime minister will say in a speech being seen by some as backing a return to elitism in schools.
While there is no direct mention of the recent riots in extracts of the speech released in advance, he will say: "We've got to be ambitious too, if we want to mend our broken society.
"Because education doesn't just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens. So for the future of our economy, and our society, we need a first-class education for every child."
Speaking at the opening of one of the first new "free" schools – set up by parents, teachers, faith groups, charities and others outside of local authority control – he will say that the country had been "bogged down in a great debate" for too long about how to provide that first-class education.
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... (The Guardian - 9 September)