In the blue corner the Tories who today launched their what their leader described as "brazenly elitist" recruitment drive for teachers.
Claiming that the profession should take on only top graduates he told an assembled audience that
We want to give our children the best – it’s time we made our teaching the best. That’s why we’re committed to a comprehensive programme of reform to elevate the status of teaching in our country.
Ed Balls described the announcement as an "airbrushed re-announcement of existing policies"
According to the education secretary
“David Cameron’s warm words are worth little when he plans immediate cuts to school funding this year. This would mean fewer teachers, fewer teaching assistants and bigger class sizes.
Official figures show that almost one in 10 trainee teachers studying for the postgraduate certificate in education has a third-class degree or lower qualification.
However as Chris Dillow points out
Research in Sweden has found that teachers with high measured cognitive skills are actually bad for lower-ability pupils. And researchers (pdf) in North Carolina have found that the effect of teachers’ qualifications upon pupil’s achievements are often statistically insignificant, or even negative, once they control for the fact that better-qualified teachers tend to teach better pupils anyway*.
The Conservatives' leader has also pledged that maths and science graduates from the 25 best universities who go into teaching will have their loans paid off.
Meanwhile the Labour party unveiled plans for increase social mobility by encouraging top professions and universities to attract people from deprived backgrounds.
The move is intended to show that the party is the one to help nurture social improvement.
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