I HAD a state school education and I can’t recall anyone leaving my school not being able to read or write, yet the UK is now ranked 23rd in the world in literacy!

I was educated in the 60s and 70s and didn’t pass my 11-plus so I wasn’t offered a place at the local grammar school. I left school not knowing how many exams I had passed. I was not academic and it was only later on in life I became so.

However, there were options available to youngsters like me in the form of apprenticeships in engineering, house building and all sorts of manufacturing skills. It was only when I joined the Army I realised just how a good education could further one’s career, and the Army helped me in that.

Those privately educated, the officers, were very well read and appeared streets ahead of the rest of us soldiers and it dawned on me then, if I and my mates were offered the same privilege many of us could have excelled much earlier on in life.

UKIP believes in an education system that works for every child, regardless of their social background or academic ability and will improve social mobility for able children from poorer backgrounds, so ultimately, UKIP wants to see a grammar school in every town.

UKIP will ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals. UKIP will scrap teachers’ performance-related pay and abolish Key Stage 1 SAT tests at primary level. UKIP will support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools.

UKIP will waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university. UKIP will end sex education for primary school children and make First Aid training part of the National Curriculum.