Brutal cuts to education funding over the last decade are “without precedent in postwar UK history” – and have hit the most deprived schools hardest, new analysis shows.
A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals how the most disadvantaged fifth of secondary schools have faced the biggest cuts, with a 14 per cent real-terms drop in spending per pupil between 2009 and 2019, compared with nine per cent for the least deprives schools.
It adds that recent changes to the distribution of education funding has exacerbated that disadvantage by providing bigger real-terms increases for the least deprived schools, putting the government’s levelling-up agenda further out of reach.
Luke Sibieta, author of the report, said: “Extra funding in the spending review will reverse cuts to school spending per pupil, but will mean 15 years without any overall growth.
“Recent funding changes have also worked against schools serving disadvantaged communities.
“This will make it that much harder to achieve ambitious goals to level up poorer areas of the country and narrow educational inequalities, which were gaping even before the pandemic.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told The Guardian the IFS report was a “grim indictment” of the government. “It is a pretty dreadful legacy to have presided over cuts to education which are without precedent in postwar UK history.”
Read the full article here:
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/tory-education-cuts-worst-since-second-world-war-303094/