This week we put readers' questions to the education spokesmen for Britain's biggest political parties, ahead of next week's general election. We asked Labour's Ed Balls for his views on the key issues.

Will you commit to rebuilding and refurbishing our tired school estates?

Labour is the only Party committed to rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary school. We’ve already made a great start, transforming schools buildings across London boroughs with record investment and much more to come. The Tories say that unless the final contracts for school rebuilding projects were signed before the election, they cannot guarantee they will go ahead if they win the election next week. That means even projects which are already a long way down the track could have the plug pulled – putting over 100 new schools at risk in boroughs across London.

Some of the schools near us are so bad no-one would want to send their children there. Would you get tough on failing schools?

Back in 1997, over half of our schools were not even meeting our basic benchmark and London had the worst results in the country. But over the last 13 years hundreds of London schools have been transformed and the capital now has the best results in the country.

But I know there is much more to do to make sure there is a choice of good local schools for all parents. That’s why we will make sure the best schools work to spread their expertise and transform weaker and coasting schools.

The Conservatives are planning big cuts to schools budgets in just a few weeks time that would damage the education of children in all London’s schools. Instead of building on the progress of the last decade, that would risk sending standards into reverse.

We need to cut down on kids travelling on public transport to get to schools far away. It is safer for kids and makes a sense of community stronger when local kids are in local schools. Do you agree?

Of course. That’s why we must continue to invest in education so that parents have a choice of good local schools. We will step in to transform schools that are under-performing or coasting along. And where parents are not satisfied with their local schools, we will give them the power to bring in new leadership teams to raise standards.

The Conservatives would cut billions from existing schools to pay for their plan to copy free market reforms which, when they were tried in Sweden, actually saw standards fall.

We’ve got a massive shortage of primary school places in our borough – how are you going to tackle this problem when there’s no money to spend?

It’s up to local councils to plan for the future and make sure there are sufficient school places for every child. The Labour Government has just provided £300 million to help tackle the shortage of primary school places in some parts of the country. Local authorities bid for a share of this extra money and many London Boroughs benefited. Labour will increase funding for schools by over 2 per cent per year over the next two years – and that’s on top of paying for 80,000 extra places.

Are you backing the boycott of SATs exams?

No. I have always said that the testing system is not set in stone and I’ve listened to people’s concerns – we got rid of the key stage 3 tests at 14 and the externally marked science test at age 11. But I think it’s important that parents have accurate and objective information about how their children are doing and how local schools are performing, which is why the tests in English and maths at the end of primary school are important.

It’s not just that heads have a statutory duty to oversee the tests – they have a professional and moral duty to put the best interests of pupils and parents first. Pupils and teachers have been working hard all year and they should all be given the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements. It would be very unfair if some children were prevented from doing so at the last minute.

I’m a teaching assistant and my school is concentrating its efforts on helping a minority of pupils who might get 5A*-C, including english and maths, to boost our place in the league tables. Is this fair?

I understand the concerns of teachers and teaching assistants about league tables – they present a very narrow view of what schools do. That’s why Labour wants to introduce School Report Cards which will give a much broader view of how schools are doing – not just the average exam results, but the progress pupils make and other information that’s important to parents like behaviour and discipline.

But I also think it’s important that we make sure we help children who are falling behind to catch-up, particularly in those vital subjects of English and maths. If Labour is re-elected we will give children falling behind in the 3Rs one-to-one tuition to get them back on track. Over 85,000 children in London would benefit from this September – it’s just a shame the Tories blocked this guarantee in Parliament a few weeks ago.

I’m at college and I want to go to uni – but don’t want to end up with massive debts. Will you charge students for higher education?

We have a record number of young people at University, but we can only do this if graduates make a contribution towards part of the cost of their education. This has to be done in a fair way – which is why Labour eliminated up-front fees paid by parents and students and ensured that repayment of loans was related to ability to pay.

We’ve also brought back grants to ensure that young people from the poorest families are not prevented from getting a University education. Since these reforms came in, the higher education participation rate for young people from the most disadvantaged areas has increased every year. I hope you will choose to go on to University and fulfil your ambitions – good luck.