16th May 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Schools in England have been told that there is no promise of an increase in funding, despite a campaign by head teachers that there is a ‘funding crisis’. Reported on the BBC, the majority of head teachers says that they are facing staffing cuts and bigger class sizes, and that pupil premium money, which is supposed to go towards struggling students, is now being used to ‘prop up core budgets’. However, a in recent speech by Damian Hinds, the education secretary, he could not guarantee any increase in schools’ funding.
Hinds’ speech promised sabbaticals to help stretched teachers, and said that the government would no longer force good schools to become academies. He also conceded that schools find it difficult to manage their budget. However, Hinds would not comment further on whether there would be any additional funding for schools, and said that a decision would be made after the next spending review. This actually went down well with the head teachers, possibly because previous education secretaries have been less clear on the parameters surrounding schools’ budgets, either not admitting there was a problem, to not stating when any decision on changing the budget would be announced.
The institute for Fiscal studies said that there will be a 4.6% real term fall in schools’ budgets between 2015 and 2020. The funding was protected between 2010 and 2015 despite austerity measures, and last year £1.3bn was reallocated to schools. Head teachers point to the fact that demand for education is higher than ever before and, as a result, no increase in funding means that is is becoming increasingly difficult to continue to juggle the accounts. It remains to be seen whether head teachers will step up their campaign to increase the pressure on the government, or trust that the problem will be dealt with.