Green Party’s 2024 General Election Manifesto | Sector Reaction

Green Party’s Education Promises

Education should be about inspiring a love of learning and ensuring that every young person can reach their potential. Yet too many children are failing to thrive in an education system that operates like a production line rather than valuing their individual qualities. An investment in the next generation is the most important investment we can make.

On post-16 education Green MPs will push for:

• A £3bn increase in funding for sixth-form education over the next parliamentary term, and a £12bn investment in skills and lifelong learning for further education.
• The restoration of the Education Maintenance Allowance to financially support young people to extend their studies after the age of 16.

They will also:

1. fully fund every higher education student, restoring maintenance grants and scrapping undergraduate tuition fees. Our long term plans also include seeking to cancel the injustice of graduate debt
2. Green MPs will push for £5bn to be invested in special needs (SEND) provision within mainstream schools. This means that all schools will have fully accessible buildings and specially trained teachers, and local councils will have the funds to properly support SEND students at school and in getting to school.
3. Reduces the stress in our education system by ending high-stakes, formal testing at primary and secondary schools and by abolishing OFSTED.
4. Repeal the anti-democratic Elections Act 2022, ending the need to provide voter-ID.
5. Elected Greens will therefore push for migrants, including students, to be allowed to bring members of their family to the UK who would normally live with them in their country of origin, or would do so if it were permitted by law or custom.
6. Elected Greens will push to remove minimum income requirements from all applications including spousal visas.
7. Invest £5bn investment in community sports, arts and culture.
8. Local authorities are properly funded to deliver youth services including the youth workers who play a key role in keeping young people safe.
9. Safeguarding is the priority in encounters between young people and the police.
10. Make it mandatory for councils to provide free transport for 16–18-year-old pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability.
11. Introduce a maximum 10:1 pay ratios for all private and public-sector organisations.
12. Deliver equal rights for all workers currently excluded from protections, including gig economy’ workers and those on‘zero hours’ contracts
13. We will seek to introduce a minimum wage of £15 an hour for all, no matter your age, with the costs to small businesses offset by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,000.
14. Elected Greens will support reduced working hours and moving towards a four-day working week.
15. In the long term, Green MPs will push for the introduction of a Universal Basic Income that will give everybody the security to start a business, study, train or just live their life in dignity

Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay, Green Party Co-Leaders Said:

“Millions of people in our country are feeling insecure and deeply worried about the future. We live in one of the richest countries on the planet, yet nurses are using food banks, our children’s schools are crumbling, a roof over our heads is all too often unaffordable, and hospital and dentist appointments are like gold dust.

Meanwhile, the climate emergency continues to accelerate. Scientists warn that we are currently on track for global temperatures to rise by at least 2.5°C, far beyond levels at which humanity can safely survive. Our promise to you is that all this can change. We can create a greener, fairer country together – one in which we are all safer, happier and more fulfilled.”

It will take MPs prepared to make brave, principled choices on your behalf. And it will take the kinds of policies set out in this manifesto, for which elected Green MPs will fight hard every single day for you.

Here is the full Manifesto from the Green Party

Sector Reaction:

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: 

“I’m pleased to see the Green party manifesto focusing on the significant investment needed in further education to ensure that young people get the best start in life and adults can access the training and skills they need to be active citizens and find good work. The £3bn increase in funding for sixth form education over the next parliamentary term, and a £12bn investment in skills and lifelong learning for further education, alongside the reintroduction of the Education Maintenance Allowance to financially support young people to extend their studies after the age of 16 are all very welcome proposals. 

“That investment would need to help colleges close the £9,000 pay gap between school and college teachers of £9,000, and extend opportunities to all young people and adults as we called for in our paper, 100% Opportunity: the case for a tertiary education system, in April.

“The proposal for councils to provide free transport for 16 to 18-year-olds with special educational needs and disabilities and the pledge to introduce universal basic income are both helpful steps towards a more inclusive lifelong learning society and we welcome the promise for a trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college but would want to see that extended to include further education colleges.”   

NUS UK Vice President for Liberation and Equality, Nehaal Bajwa, said:  

“The Green Party are offering a splash of hope for young people with this manifesto.  Students and students’ unions up and down the UK have been lobbying hard to secure a future for us all – and we’re pleased to see the Greens have listened to some of our core asks. Students are the future, they are the next generation of doctors, nurses, teachers and public sector workers; they are the engineers, researchers and political leaders who will solve the crises which threaten our society and our world. Students and young people are looking to their political leaders for hope, a picture of a better future, and a reason to vote for them.

“However, the majority of students in the UK are those in colleges. While we’re pleased to see a commitment to Votes at 16 now, we need to see proper detail on qualification reform and the future of our further education sector.

This manifesto offers a clear vision for students and young people, who are now a priority target for the Greens. The Labour party has historically taken these votes for granted but, with students holding the balance of power in over 60 constituencies, they need to urgently consider their offer.”

Picture: Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. (2024, June 10). In Wikipedia.