Polling finds most popular education policies among voters

Polling from the think tank Public First examined the appeal of a series of education policies and pledges that have been announced by various parties in the run up to the July 4 general election. The poll of 2011 adults, conducted from 7 to 9 June, presented respondents with pairs of policy commitments from a list of 20, asking them to choose which of each pair they preferred. The results were used to produce a ranked lists of policies based on an overall net score. (Respondents were not told which party had announced each policy.)

Using this method, the two most popular policies were Labour’s commitment to recruit 6500 additional teachers, and the Conservatives’ promise to increase apprenticeships for young people and adults. Both of these pledges had a net 30 per cent positive response. The least popular schools policy among respondents was Labour’s plan to introduce supervised toothbrushing for Reception pupils, with a 49 per cent net negative response. The least popular education-linked policy from the Conservatives was their plan to reintroduce national service, which scored a 25 per cent net negative response.

When they were asked what an incoming government’s spending priorities should be, Education wasn’t a top pick for respondents. 68 per cent said they wanted more spending on the NHS, with school spending the seventh most popular choice on 15 per cent. Meanwhile just 4 per cent identified FE spending as their priority. However, Public First also asked what should be prioritised if a government did find it had more money to spend on education. To this question the most popular answer was reducing class sizes by hiring more teachers, chosen by 32 per cent. Its popularity was consistent across gender, social groups and education levels. Free school meals for all children up to 16 was the next most popular priority, for 27 per cent of respondents, and the most common priority for respondents from the North East (37 per cent), the North West (35 per cent) and Scotland (31 per cent).

Further details of the Public First polling is available here: https://tinyurl.com/4ejxbm65