Our schools are key to ‘levelling up’ mission – The Yorkshire Post says

They have gone over and above the call of duty to do their best for their pupils, even more so when set in the context of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s lame leadership and fiasco over last summer’s exams.

And their professionalism is reflected by the fact that 82 per cent of the region’s schools have been rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted inspectors – a decade of steady progress now appears to be entrenched.

However it still leaves Yorkshire and the Humber’s success rate lagging behind the rest of the country where 86 per cent of schools meet Ofsted’s benchmarks.

As such, it’s even more important that the Government, LEAs and school providers redouble their efforts to attract, even incentivise, the very best teachers here to help drive up academic standards to greater levels of excellence.

This is also another reminder that schools and skills are integral to the future success of the Northern Powerhouse and Levelling Up agendas.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s taxpayers and wealth-creators – and investing in their futures, as the centre for Cities think-tank and others now argue, matters just as much as the region’s physical infrastructure like new road and rail links.

Given this, it is imperative that there’s a far closer correlation between skills policy and infrastructure investment if the North is to rival, and hopefully, surpass London as the place to learn, live and work.

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