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The Labour Government is aiming for class sizes of no more than 30 pupils for infant school children by the year 2002. The consultative document Excellence in Schools deals with all aspects of education in the UK. The clarification of school policies on behaviour, truancy and exclusion and increasing parental involvement are seen as vital areas for improvement. More information should be available to parents of a child who is not reaching the expected standards. Parents will be admitted to local education committees. The Government intends to continue with performance tables.

Some UK schools have already introduced initiatives to improve the results of all their pupils. The UK government plans to use value-added performance tables to help get a clearer idea of how schools are performing. Bordesley Green school is situated in a very poor area of the Midlands, England, yet it is continuously improving its results.

The United Kingdom is introducing a new type of inspections procedure for schools which involves a lighter touch for schools that have a record of success. There is less need for paperwork to be presented to inspectors, who may also not sit through whole lessons. The school is given less notice that the inspection is due to take place. Bassingbourn Village College is one school that has been inspected under the new system, and it has been received favorably, despite some concerns such as a desire to impart more information to the inspectors.

The Labour government have introduced new methods of dealing with UK schools which fail their school inspections. The schools will be allowed to make changes within a two year time period. Head teachers at failing schools point out they have many deprived and underachieving children therefore they will always be at a disadvantage compared to other schools. Some schools have managed to make enormous changes to the quality of education since being named as failing schools. United Kingdom Education Secretary David Blunkett has promised to stop publicizing the names of failing schools.

United Kingdom Schools Chief Inspector Chris Woodhead may hinder the efforts of failing schools to mount an improvement strategy by criticising them in public. The government must help inner city schools with their recruitment difficulties if they are going to improve. Parents, school governors and teachers often work hard to address problems within failing schools but a lack of staff remains a constant difficulty. Woodhead failed to mention the positive points noted in the Office of Education Standards report on Lewisham Bridge primary school, when he spoke of its weaknesses.

Compulsory targets are expected to be required in maths, science and English and they are supported by both major political parties. Targets are believed to be motivating but the numbers obtaining five GCSE grades A-C during the past 10 years have doubled, without compulsory target setting. Such improvements actually began to arrive before the national curriculum, OFSTED and any rhetoric of fault-finding.

The new government which will be formed in the UK following the forthcoming general election will face a number of serious challenges in the education sector. There have been many educational reforms over recent years, but these have not always been as successful as they could have been because they were imposed on the teaching profession without consultation. A new government must focus on raising overall levels of achievement, boosting the standard of teachers, devoting more resources to education and abolishing the hierarchical structure of the school system.

'Indicators in Educational Policy' was published by Great Britain's Her Majesty's Inspectorate in 1991. The report describes the US school system and how the US government maintains educational standards through 'education indicators.' While the British system of educational evaluation lacks the statistics compiled by the US system, it is better in other respects. The British school inspection system is more centralized and more relevant to national policies. Despite this, however, much improvement has yet to be made where public involvement in concerned.