Commenting on the Education Committee’s report which calls for a
ten-year plan for school and college funding, Kevin
Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the
National Education Union, said:
“This all-party report is a vindication of the School Cuts
campaign and every single teacher and parent who has called out
the Government on its negligence in failing to fund schools and
colleges. This is the Conservatives’ own mess. The question now
is whether the new Prime Minister will listen. Candidates
have pledged extra money for education during their campaigns,
but schools need more than promises on the side of a bus. Schools
need real money for real children in real schools now.
“The report sets out the scale of the cuts in funding per student
and the impact they have had on post-16 education, high needs
funding and school funding generally. The report is also
right to point out that the basic unit of funding (the “AWPU”) is
simply not enough.
“We agree with the Select Committee that education needs a
10-year plan for funding like that for the NHS, and we have
recently proposed exactly that.
“The NEU, with the f40 local authorities group, ASCL and NAHT,
has published a complete assessment of the extra funding needed
to reverse the cuts made in recent years. We are proposing
an immediate increase of £3bn in order to restore half of the
£5.9bn current funding loss, followed by a 3.5% real-terms
increase every year for the next six years. (1) This is the
same strategy as adopted for the NHS plan. The new Prime
Minister must consider this alongside the Select Committee
proposals.”
ENDS
2019-109-NEU
Editor’s Note
(1) https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/coalition-unveils-long-term-funding-plan-reverse-education-cuts
