Commenting on the education briefing accompanying the
Queen’s Speech, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“The education briefing accompanying the Queen’s Speech
again shows why we need an independent body which provides
unvarnished and hype-free information in public life.
“We are pleased that more money is going into 16-19
education next year. But the government’s boast that this
represents the biggest injection of new money in a single year
since 2010 and means funding is increasing ‘even faster’ than for
5-16 schooling needs to be put in context.
“As the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported in
September, FE colleges and sixth
forms have faced the largest cuts in education spending in recent
years. Between 2010–11 and 2018–19, spending per student fell by
12% in real terms in 16–18 colleges and by 23% in school sixth
forms.
“The stark reality is that these cuts have had a
devastating impact on the sector with sixth forms and colleges
having to drop courses and reduce student support services. The
extra money being delivered next year is nowhere near enough to
repair this damage and will still leave the funding rate for
students a long way short of what it needs to be.
“And while we very much welcome the additional money for
5-16 schools, the funding allocated will not be enough to both
increase teacher starting salaries to £30,000 and reverse the
cuts which have taken place. Many schools will in fact have to
make further cuts next year because they will receive only an
inflationary increase and school costs are rising at a faster
rate than inflation.”
