Good evening Conference,

This has been one of my proudest months in politics. I’m proud to be able to represent the proud constituency of Orkney in Holyrood. I’m proud to be the Education Spokesperson for the finest party on these shores and I’m proud of having the honour of being able to speak to you here today.

Education in Britain is being left to rot. Academisation has created vast inefficiencies all in the name of privatisation through the back-door.

Now unlike every other party’s Education Spokesperson, I am someone who worked in education. I have seen on the coalface the damage and disease this fatal experiment has brought to our children’s education and I say no more.

Already we are starting to make changes. We have brought forward a motion to make sure that school uniforms are truly affordable to all. We have pushed forward legislation to ensure the history we teach our children is not riddled with colonial dominance but one that properly introduces the historical role BAME people have played in building this compassionate Liberal society. We have introduced legislation to ensure that the technology students need to succeed in a 21st century world has been provided should they be unfortunate enough to not be able to afford it.

These are changes that I know the Liberal Democrats are proud to push to the fore. But we must also recognise that we must do more.

The Liberal Democrats are going to radically reform the selective education system. Now I know that some of you think this is a political third rail; yet the flaws in this system can be dealt with. A Liberal Democrat-led government will introduce a phase system, so that students can move between Grammar Schools, Comprehensive Schools and Universal Technical Colleges freely at the establishment's recommendation. This will be backed up with appropriate reforms of our qualification and exam system: ensuring that students receive the best style of education that they need to go and be successful in our society.

I also recognise that we must adequately train our teachers to provide the best education they can, but also ensure the work they do does not result in burn-out. Our system does nothing to protect our teachers with record numbers leaving the profession after just one or two years. This must stop.

The Liberal Democrats will reform teacher training. We will support our teachers by providing a salary to those undergoing training. We should not charge teachers to train when they will be providing a tireless service to our children and this country's future.

Once these teachers are trained, we will protect them. We will increase school budgets, so that teachers can be given more PPA time across the board: giving them more free time to prepare exciting lessons, provide good feedback and the headspace they need to ensure our brightest minds get the best results.

Conference, these reforms will ensure we provide a world class education for future generations. A Liberal Democrat government in Westminster is the only way we will provide the education our children deserve.

Thank you.

By /u/northernwomble

This is the last speech for Day 1 of the Liberal Democrat Conference 2020. We'll be back tomorrow evening for more speeches on Day 2!