Responding to the IFS’s annual report on education funding in
England, that states there has been no real-terms growth in the
last 14 years, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association
of School and College Leaders, said: “The IFS has once again laid
bare the government’s chronic underfunding of education. The
extra money for schools and high needs announced in the Autumn
Statement is obviously welcome, but it follows a decade of
real-terms cuts, and, as the IFS points out, still represents 14
years without growth in school funding. This does not show a
government that is ambitious for the future of children and young
people.
“More stark still is the neglect of early years and post-16
education despite the vital importance of these sectors. The
government’s investment in colleges and sixth forms has been
woefully inadequate resulting in cuts to curriculum options and
student support services. This financial squeeze and the effect
on young people at a crucial point in their lives is the very
opposite of levelling up.
“The impact of all these funding pressures has left an education
workforce that is battered and demoralised. Their pay has been
eroded in real-terms over the course of many years and their
workload has increased because they have been asked to do more
with less. As a result, we now have a full-blown recruitment and
retention crisis which is leading to significant staff shortages
in many schools and colleges.
“It will be impossible to sustain educational standards, let
alone improve them, without making investment in education far
more of a priority.”
