Commenting on the General Election scheduled for 12
December, Dr Mary
Bousted, Joint General Secretary
of the National Education Union, said:
“There is a huge choice for education at this election. Be
under no illusion – schools and colleges are in a dire situation,
and real solutions are needed.
“When casting their vote, we will ensure that parents,
teachers, school leaders and the general public are in full
possession of the facts, not the spin.
“The Prime Minister has pledged to ‘level up’ school
funding so that there are ‘no winners or losers’. He knows full
well that the amount he has promised goes nowhere near to fixing
the roof: 83% of schools next April will be worse off than they
were in 2015, and children in 143 out of 149 local authorities
are still losing out. (1)
“Schools need a significant funding increase now, not the
dribs and drabs promised from April 2020. Schools are losing
support staff, dropping subjects, closing early, and cutting
corners on basic maintenance, just to get by. Parents understand
why this is the case. Schools currently face a further six months
of this appalling status quo.
“The accountability culture is now toxic. Ofsted judgements
and SATs results give narrow and in too many instances inaccurate
information to parents and government about the standards of
education. The additional workload and stress they generate is
one of the main reasons given by teachers for leaving the
profession. (2) That is why Ofsted and SATs must be replaced by a
new system of accountability and assessment which gives a true
picture of schools, colleges and students. This will rejuvenate
the education system and go some way to reducing the crisis in
recruitment and retention.
“Teachers encounter the effects of child poverty every day,
but the present Government appears unwilling to prioritise the
most vulnerable in society. The Conservatives have got rid of the
target to end child poverty, despite 4.1 million children still
trapped in poverty and this figure expected to rise to 5.2m by
2022. In one of the richest countries on the globe, we must and
can do better – and expect this to be reflected in party
manifestos.
“If you value education, you must vote for
education.”
1. The
School Cuts interactive map was fully updated on 14 October 2019
to reflect Spending Review commitments.
Schoolcuts.org.uk
2. The
State of Education: Workload, NEU survey published 16 April
2019: https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/state-education-workload
