New analysis reveals that current funding settlement for schools means that by 2024/25 funding per pupil will be 3% lower than 2010 in real terms, despite a huge rise in financial demands. The independent Education Policy Institute (EPI) said the Government’s own disadvantage gap measures for both primary and secondary schools now stand at their widest in a decade, and that could widen further if more public spending cuts are announced. Research by the EPI found that based on average school rolls of 1,030 in secondary schools and 270 in primaries, the difference in funding between 2009-10 and 2024-25 was around £206,000 and £40,000. The EPI said that with an average salary of primary teachers of £37,500 and £40,000 in secondary, the funding gap therefore equates to one teacher per primary and three to four teachers per secondary. Nick Brook from the NAHT school leaders’ union said: “On current spending plans, education funding is expected to be around £2bn less in real terms by September 2024 than it was in 2010. Funding shortfalls of this scale cannot be absorbed by schools without severely impacting quality of education.”
Categories: TIOB News
