Responding to today’s Budget announcement, Geoff Barton, General
Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“While ASCL welcomes any additional spending on schools and
colleges, the measures outlined in today’s Budget are piecemeal,
lacking in a coherent strategy and extremely disappointing.
Support to prepare for T levels, and investment in maths and
computer science are helpful, but this is a drop in the ocean
compared to what is needed to safeguard educational standards.
“School funding is being cut in real terms by 4.6% between 2015
to 2019, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal
Studies. ASCL calculates that an additional £2bn a year will be
needed by 2020 to address this situation.
“Funding for 16-19 education is even more inadequate. Despite its
obvious importance in giving students qualifications which are
vital for university entry and career progression, it receives
significantly less funding per-student than other phases of
education.
“The spending announcements in today’s Budget do not remotely
meet the urgent need for a significant improvement in education
funding.
“Schools and colleges will have to make further cutbacks
resulting in more damage to the curriculum and the support that
they are able to offer to their students. It appears that the
government has learned nothing from this year’s General Election
when parents across the country sent a clear message that they
wanted to see proper investment in education.”
In relation to the announcement of £600 for schools and
colleges for every extra pupil takings maths of further maths A
levels or core maths, Mr Barton said:
“Any investment in 16-19 education is welcome because this phase
of education is so poorly funded. But it is a great shame that
the government has chosen to target very limited extra funding at
one subject area rather than improve the general level of per
student funding. Maths is a very important subject, but so too
are many other subjects, such as French, German, music and drama
in which entries are in decline at A level.
“We are concerned that the focus on funding exclusively for maths
students creates a perverse incentive to enter students on to
maths courses which might not necessarily be the best option for
them. And it would be very unfair if this funding applies only
where there is an increase in the number of students taking
maths, as this would penalise those institutions which have
already worked hard to increase maths entries.”
