Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has launched his party's election campaign with a promise to provide 21,000 extra primary school teachers.
Mr Kennedy said the changes would cut infant and junior class sizes.
The party intends to pay for the plan by scrapping Labour's proposed £1.5bn Child Trust Fund scheme.
The Conservatives promised more discipline in schools, while Labour offered full- or part-time education for all up to the age of 18.
The Tories have made a crackdown on school discipline one of their key manifesto pledges.
"People long for their children to be taught in disciplined schools," Tory leader Michael Howard said.
"The more time a teacher can spend with a child, the better the chances for that child"
The party proposes scrapping tuition fees and replacing the funding with higher charges on student loans.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Tony Blair promised spending would rise to £5,500 per pupil by 2008, saying education investment was "an essential part of creating a prosperous Britain".
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said extra funding would give every young person the chance to stay in education or training until they were 18.
Admissions 'free-for-all'
She told the BBC News website there would be a "huge drive" to tackle the "drop-out culture" of pupils leaving school at 16 without basic maths and English skills.
Later, she claimed Conservative education policy would "take Britain back to privilege and elitism" by subsidising private schooling and creating a "free-for-all in admissions".
"There's nothing we want more than to raise standards in all schools and to make sure every single school is a good local school," she said.
The Labour manifesto will include a pledge not to raise university tuition fees above £3,000 during the next Parliament, allowing for inflation.
Mr Kennedy said providing 21,000 extra primary school teachers would mean a drop in average infant class sizes from 25 to 20 pupils to each teacher.
Junior classes would also fall from an average of 27 to 25 pupils per teacher.
"The more time a teacher can spend with a child, the better the chances for that child," he told a press conference in Westminster.
He condemned Labour's Child Trust Fund, saying it was "expensive, unnecessary and will deliver little in the way of real benefit".
'Nauseating' sight
Mr Kennedy said: "The Liberal Democrats will invest for our children's future now, not lock money away.
"Twenty-one thousand new primary school teachers to reduce class sizes and give our children the best possible start."
Mr Kennedy said smaller class sizes would also help cut "the grind of bureaucracy" and paperwork faced by teachers, giving them more time to concentrate on interaction with pupils.
The Lib Dems have already pledged to abolish tuition and top-up fees for university students.
Mr Kennedy repeated the commitment while speaking to college students in the target seat of Surrey South West on Monday.
He said the sight of Labour MPs who had benefited from free university education "pulling the ladder up" behind them was "nauseating" and "disgraceful".
Mr Kennedy earlier rejected opposition claims of a "black hole" in his party's spending plans.
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