If you’re looking for an overview of the key education pledges being put forward by all of the main political parties, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve done the hard work and sifted through all the superfluous text and whittled it down to the key points, chucking in a key quote for added context.

Labour

Outline of promises:

• To increase the overall education budget in line with inflation every year (for 0-19 -year-olds)
• To cap class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds to 30 pupils max
• To cut university tuition fees by £3,000 to take it down to £6,000
• To guarantee childcare for all primary school children from 8am to 6pm

Key quote from Labour leader Ed Miliband: “My vision for education is shaped by my belief in equal opportunity, built for the modern world. It is based on the idea that education gives people a passport to a good life. A means not just of learning but of earning a decent living, transcending circumstance, understanding how to be part of a community and venturing into new worlds.”

Conservatives

Outline of promises:

• To boost the number of free schools in England by 500 over the next five years
• To ensure that school funding per pupil is protected
• To deliver a zero-tolerance approach to failing schools through immediate action
• To provide every child in the country with a “good primary school place”

Key quote from prime minister and Tory leader David Cameron: “Good school places need money and we will make sure our schools are properly funded. Today, I can make this commitment about Conservative plans. We’ve demonstrated in the past five years that we can protect the schools budget while reducing the deficit and we will do so again.”

Liberal Democrats

Outline of promises:

• To deliver an effective ten-year strategy that ends child illiteracy by 2025
• To establish as standard in all state schools a core curriculum, sex education and qualified teachers
• To provide parents with 15 hours worth of free childcare a week from the end of paid parental leave
• To ringfence the education budget for children and young people (between the ages of two and 19)

Key quote from deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg: “The priority I want to focus on is education – because nothing is more central to creating both a stronger economy and a fairer society, where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.”

Green Party

Outline of promises:

• To end tuition fees and students loans and writing off all current outstanding debts
• To replace Ofsted with an independent National Council of Educational Excellence
• To ensure that all teachers in state education are qualified and for them to be employed through local authorities
• To integrate free schools and academies within the local authority school system

Key quote from Green Party spokesperson for schools Samantha Panceri during a recent Guardian Q&A: “The [Ofsted] system is expensive, inefficient and places undue stress on teachers. Alongside reforming academic assessment, we must introduce a collaborative system of monitoring school performance that allows teachers and local authorities to work together to maintain the high standards teachers strive to deliver.

UKIP

Outline of promises:

• To abolish sex and relationship education for children under the age of 11
• To ensure there is a grammar school in every town in England and allow existing schools to become grammar schools
• To end tuition fees for disadvantaged students keen to embark on a degree in technology, maths, science or engineering
• To allow parents and governors to have the power to bring about an Ofsted inspection

Key quote from UKIP education spokesman during a recent Guardian Q&A: “Immigration should be taught neutrally, in an unbiased manner, considering a range of viewpoints – in accordance with the Education Act 1996. Teaching about different cultures is important for a balanced education.”