A manifesto with opportunity at its heart

The Liberal Democrat manifesto puts opportunity at its heart and sets out a plan to ensure every child has a world-class education.

The party has announced a major new commitment to protect education funding for every child.

This means protecting education spending per pupil in real terms over the next parliament, increasing the education budget as a whole.

This commitment provides an extra £2.5bn of funding for 2-19yr olds by 2020.

This spending commitment will allow the Liberal Democrats to:

• Put a qualified teacher in every classroom.
• Recruit and retain more good teachers.
• Help schools to offer more one-to-one and small group tuition.
• Expand early years education as pupil numbers grow.

This funding will also help ensure we can meet our commitment that every child is able to read well by the age of 11.

The £2.5bn funding commitment is the equivalent of:

• 70,000 teachers, 10,000 learning support assistants and guarantees funding for the additional 460,000 children starting school through the parliament.

Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said:

"This manifesto is a blueprint for a stronger economy and a fairer society. At its heart is one word that is absolutely central to what Liberal Democrats believe: opportunity.

"We want to ensure that every child, no matter where they are born, the colour of their skin, or how rich their parents are, has the same opportunity to reach their potential is.

"That's why the Liberal Democrats are the party of education.

"At the last election, protecting schools spending and investing huge amounts of extra money towards the poorest pupils was one of our top priorities.

"I am immensely proud that we did just that in Government. But we won't rest there. We are determined to make sure that every child in Britain has a world class education."

Education Minister David Laws, chair of the Liberal Democrat manifesto group, added:

"This manifesto is a serious document from a party prepared to govern. It sets out a credible and deliverable liberal vision for Government that builds on our achievements in coalition.

"Liberal Democrats put spreading opportunity at the heart of the Coalition's agenda.

"That's why Liberal Democrats protected and invested in education. It's why Liberal Democrats created a record 2m apprenticeships.

"And it's why Liberal Democrats cut taxes for millions of working people and gave pensioners a generous rise in the state pension every year."