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Labour to boost creativity and arts in schools as Starmer announces education policy

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to raise education standards across the UK if he enters No 10 by smashing the “pernicious idea that background equals destiny”.

The opposition leader will use a keynote speech in Gillingham, Kent tomorrow to unveil Labour’s plans to shatter the “class ceiling” that he claims is “stifling opportunity for too many young people across the country”.

Sir Keir will pledge that an incoming Labour government would shake up the current early years system, as well as “modernise” the school curriculum to ensure children are properly equipped with the skills needed for adult life.

In a move that will be seen as a snub to the Tories’ efforts to wean the UK off the humanities, Labour’s plans will include placing as much focus on creativity as “academic rigour”.

Sir Keir will reference the growing threat that AI poses to education, insisting that Labour will encourage children to nurture qualities “that make us human, that distinguish us from learning machines”.

He will also pledge that a Labour government would usher in a programme of skills reform to stamp out the “snobbery” that places academia above vocational skills in the English education system.

“I’m serious – the sheep and goats mentality that’s always been there in English education. The ‘academic for my kids; vocational for your kids’ snobbery. This has no place in modern society. No connection to the jobs of the future,” the Labour leader will say.

The party will also “strengthen the teaching profession” to tackle the ongoing teacher recruitment and retention crisis that is “doing so much damage” to schools, Sir Keir will say. It will include ensuring every classroom has access to a “specialist teacher”.

And in an attempt to boost “opportunities” in Britain from early years all the way into adult life, Labour will also pledge to build more houses so that 1.5m more people can become homeowners.

Drawing on his working-class background, Sir Keir will claim that the package of reforms to boost opportunities marks “my core purpose and my personal cause”.

The changes will tackle “the pernicious idea that background equals destiny. That your circumstances, who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, effort and enterprise,” he will say.

It will mark Labour’s fifth and final “mission for a better Britain”, after Sir Keir delivered similar speeches promising to propel UK growth to the highest in the G7, boost green energy, build an NHS fit for the future, and make Britain’s streets safer.

The five missions have been widely interpreted as a bid to match Rishi Sunak’s five pledges to boost the economy by the end 2023. The Prime Minister has promised to halve inflation, grow the economy, shrink national debt, reduce NHS waiting lists and “stop” the boats.

What will Sir Keir Starmer’s speech tomorrow really mean? – Analysis

Labour’s fifth and final “mission” to improve standards in Britain will mark the most personal for Sir Keir Starmer, who will draw on his own path to success as a blueprint for how to improve opportunities across the UK.

The Labour leader will trace his roots as the son of a nurse and a toolmaker to become the first in his family to go to university, before going on to become the director of public prosecutions.

It will attempt to link all of Labour’s previous “missions” together, and offer a vision of how the party seeks to level up living standards in Britain from the cradle to the grave.

Like Sir Keir’s other speeches, it will be jam-packed with emotive language about “shattering the class ceiling” and pummelling the “ugly head” of snobbery, but will prove a little lighter on the details – at least for now.

Unions and education charities have welcomed Sir Keir’s ambition nonetheless, and insisted Labour is “right to focus on education as a class leveller”. As long as the party promises one thing: that the rhetoric will be matched with funding.

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