Commenting on a survey from the National Foundation for
Educational Research showing that school funding is the most
important education issue to teachers in the run-up to the
General Election, Pepe Di'Iasio, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“It is no surprise that education funding is the top issue for
senior leaders and teachers.
“This is because the financial situation is absolutely desperate.
Many schools are having to set in-year deficit budgets because
they don't have enough funding and they will then have to
implement cost-cutting measures to balance their books in future
years.
“In many cases, this is very likely to mean increased class sizes
and cuts to the curriculum offer, as well as to the pastoral and
additional academic support that schools provide.
“The problem is caused by the fact that the level of school
funding has not increased in line with rising costs in a lot of
schools and this compounds the impact of real-terms cuts over the
course of the last decade.
“The government claims that school funding is at a record high,
but the Institute for Fiscal Studies describes these claims as
unhelpful to public debate. This is because school funding was at
a record high almost every year prior to 2010 and the fact that
this has not been the case since 2010 reflects the fact that
there have been historically large cuts.”
