NEU comment on the Queen’s Speech

Commenting on the Queen’s Speech, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:   

“The government claims that its new Schools Bill will level up education opportunity. It will do no such thing. It displays an alarming lack of aspiration and ambition.     

“It does not address child poverty and Covid recovery, fails to resolve problems of funding, and ignores the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. It is indifferent to issues of mental health and wellbeing. While other countries are redesigning their curriculum and assessment to face the challenges of the future, the Schools Bill doubles down on the failures of the past: setting a new target for SATs performance will not raise the quality of education.     

“Cuts to school funding have resulted in the largest primary class sizes this century and the largest secondary class sizes since records began in 1978. The Schools Bill only seeks to redistribute this inadequate funding. The National Funding Formula which it seeks to embed in legislation is regressive and has redistributed funding away from schools serving the poorest pupils. (1) It is a policy which robs Peter to pay Paul, whereas what schools need is for the Government to reverse the cuts it has made.     

“The government’s claim that further academisation will lift educational standards is spurious. It has already been demolished by research from both the NEU and the Local Government Association (2). NEU analysis of Ofsted ratings suggests that schools who join multi-academy trusts are less likely to improve their Ofsted rating and are, in fact, more likely to see a regression in their next Ofsted assessment. (3)   

“It is characteristic of the Bill’s piecemeal and patchwork approach to the crisis of our system that it singles out student attendance for attention, while overlooking problems of mental health and exam factory culture that contribute to poor attendance.  The government has not listened to parents’ responses to its consultation on attendance, which warned against a one-sided approach and called for school provision to meet individual needs of pupils. (4)   

“Schools need something better than a plan for the future which is a just a turbocharged version of the failed policies of the past, adding to the pressure on schools without any prospect of serious improvement. Until such time as these fundamental problems facing our education system are recognised and acted upon Boris Johnson's levelling up agenda will remain a hollow aspiration.”  

Editor’s Note  

ENDS    

1. NAO, “School funding in England”, 2 July 2021, Paragraph 2.3.1 https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/School-funding-in-England.pdf

2. Local Government Association 9 May 2022 ‘Council-maintained schools outperforming academies new research reveals’. https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/council-maintained-schools-outperforming-academies-new-research-reveals

3. National Education Union 31 March 2022  ‘Government Evidence for Forcing Schools into MATs badly flawed’.https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/governments-evidence-forcing-schools-mats-badly-flawed

4. DfE May 2022 School attendance: improving the consistency of support: Government consultation responsehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1073554/School_attendance_consultation_government_response.pdf