Educational Reform and Civic Participation Act 2020

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1 Definitions

1. Defines civic education as education about the political and constitutional system of the United Kingdom as well as education of political policy
2. Defines ‘technical’ as any school which teaches courses relevant to the workforce, beyond the a-level curriculum- courses that are deemed eligible for the new ‘Qualification of Technical Skill (QTS)

2 Education Funding

1. increase funding for the department of education by 3% a year in real terms. (cost- £4.2 billion per annum)
2. Increase funding for apprenticeship, training and technical colleagues by 20%, with 4% a year real term increases, and pledges to provide funds necessary for the construction of technical colleagues and institutions, creating a taskforce within the department of education to oversee its rollout. £1.5bn will be provided
3. Creates the UK Apprenticeship Fund to subside employers providing apprenticeship opportunities, with a budget of £500 million
4. Increases the budget of the UK Innovation and Research by 10% (Cost: £700 million)
5. Increases the budget for the Office for Students by 10% (cost: £120 million)
6. All funds hereby mentioned will be enacted only if such a funding increase is passed in the budget, with explicit mention of the activation of this clause.

3 Creation of the Qualification of Technical Skill

1. Instructs the Department of Education to create, as a qualification, the Qualification of Technical Skill Level 1 to be taken at 16 and the Qualification of Technical Skill Level 2 to be taken at eighteen.
2. States that such qualifications must teach technical skills that could be used in the workforce, and requires any such qualification to be certified by the DfE
3. Provides grants to schools looking to expand these provisions out of the new technical training budget from the budget designated with the increase of funding for apprenticeships
4. States that students may wish to take these qualifications in preference to a-levels and GCSEs, but re-iterates the requirement of getting a 5 in English Language and Maths before leaving school

4 Class Size Targets

1. Instructs the Department of Education to set a target that by 2024 the average primary and infant class will have a class size of 25 and the average for secondary school classes will fall to 20.
2. Allows the Department of Education to review this target and formulate steps ahead and funding request to achieve this target.

5 Free School Meals Provision

1. Expands universal free school meal provision to the end of year 6
2. Creates a Free School Breakfast programme for those currently eligible for free school meals (cost- £400 million)
3. Requires the department of health to work in conjunction with the department of health to ensure such meals are as nutritious and healthy as possible
4. Gives the Department of Education power to enforce these measures with appropriate actions, recommendation and requests for funding by her majesty’s treasury.

6 Teacher Salaries and Recruitment

1. Increases pay for all teachers by 3% in real term this year, followed by a 1% increase in real terms for every subsequent year
2. Sets a target to be implemented by the department of education to increase annual teaching recruitment by 10% over the course of the next five years, with an annual strategy to be drawn by the department of education

7 Expansion of the Erasmus Scheme

1. Instructs the Office for Students to take steps to expand participation in the Erasmus programme from 17,000 to 25,000 per annum by 2024
2. Urges the Department for Students to consult with the European Union about appropriate measures to increase cultural interchange

8 Civic, Political and Race Relations Education

1. Instructs the department of Education to add to their qualification a compulsory GCSE in Civic Studies to be taken by all pupils at the age of 16. The curriculum will consist of British political history, the history of the development of British democracy, and the history and misdeeds of the British Empire, including atrocities committed in Africa, India and the horrors of the slave trade.
2. Instructs the department of education to create a commission on Civic Studies to consult civil rights, LGBT rights, feminist and other groups to help determine the curriculum.
3. Formally encourages school to broaden the range of their history curriculums, to include more African, Asian and South American History.

9 Enactment

1. This Act comes into force on the 1^st June 2021.
2. This Act may be cited as the Educational Reform and Civic Participation Act 2020.
3. This Act extends to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.