LAST week I visited three local primary schools to talk about Parliament and to catch up with hardworking teachers.

It was a pleasure to meet the children at Chudleigh Knighton Primary, Hatherleigh Community Primary and Cheriton Fitzpaine Primary.

We are lucky to have many good local schools in Devon and I like to visit our schools as much as I can because I feel very strongly that education is the ladder for opportunity and social mobility in our country, just as it was for me when I was younger.

I want as many children as possible to benefit from a good education and have the chance to fulfil their potential, whatever their background may be.

That’s why I am concerned about some of the proposed changes the government wants to make to our education system.

Since 2010 reforms have been rolled out across the country by Conservative ministers which have been proven to significantly improve results and rigour in our schools, and have boosted our standing in international achievement league tables.

Those reforms, based around increased school freedoms and academisation, were controversial at the time but were championed by very able ministers including Michael Gove and Nick Gibb.

As a result, we have seen our children climb from 27th to 11th in the international PISA rankings for maths.

When it comes to reading skills, nine and 10-year-olds in England are now ranked “best in the western world”. And the proportion of schools rated good or outstanding has risen from 68 per cent to 89 per cent.

I have seen some of this progress first hand when visiting local schools since 2010.

But the government is currently putting new legislation through Parliament which could undo this good work, by rolling back some of the freedoms which have given schools flexibility to improve and have driven greater parental choice.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will make it harder for successful schools to expand.

It will give schools less say on who they can employ and how much they can pay good teachers. And it will mean all schools now have to follow the National Curriculum set by politicians in London.

Academies were not just a Conservative policy, they were also part of Tony Blair’s education reforms.

This should not be a party political or ideological issue, it should simply be a question about what has been proven to deliver a better education for our children.

I do not see what problem the government is trying to solve with its new legislation.

It seems to simply be about imposing uniformity and control from the top. It is almost as if they would rather every school offered the same education than allow some to be better than others.

Ultimately it is the most disadvantaged children who lose out if our school standards slip.

I hope the government reconsiders and learns to trust our teachers and the extraordinary work they have done under the reforms brought in under Tony Blair’s new Labour and the accelerated under the last Conservative government.

Mel Stride

MP for Central Devon