New exams aren't the solution

However one masks and sugar-coats it, every child going through the school system who turns out to be unable to read properly is a mark of failure on the government's record. Labour's motto "Education, education, education" clearly wasn't meant to succeed.

Not so long ago top British academics warned that their institutions had to lower admissions standards to face a growing number of youngsters whose skills were below par. Data regarding GCSEs and A-levels, especially in the sciences and languages, are not encouraging, while easier courses (excuse me, media studies, general studies and the like are easy!) are skyrocketing.

Now the british Tories are planning to introduce a reading assessment for kids leaving primary school. While this might provide more and more statistics, it doesn't tackle the root cause of illiteracy. Campaigning for phonics teaching is just part of the solution.

I remember when I was learning to read and write (in two languages with two different alphabets, mind you!) my family would spend hours helping me and compelling me to exercise, without giving me any rewards for being good but insisting that I absolutely had to be able to read and write properly and know the multiplication tables. I'm saying that because what all politicians need to realize is a very simple reality: the fundamental educational unit in the first years is the family. The school cannot do the impossible if the family neglects the child. Literacy and numeracy start in the home with mom and dad.

Intervention by the Government, as well as the attempt to monopolize people's lives, have limited people's sense of responsibility. Bring education and responsibility back in the family, get the parents involved directly, make them proud of their child's achievements. Tests and exams are either a sieve or a statistics production tool. Good if you want to sieve out the failing kids or have some statistics to wave.

Resources spent on new examinations are better spent on tackling the root causes of the problem. The Tories have the right principles and the right mindset to do this. Creating new exams is a Labour pastime; it's boring, inefficient, costly, stressful and useless.