NASUWT comments on IFS school spending and costs report

Commenting on the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report “School spending and costs: the coming crunch”, Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:

“The Government has since 2010 systematically reduced real-terms funding for schools and wider services for children and families.

“Pupils, teachers and schools are being asked to pay the price for years of Government under-funding.

“It is simply not acceptable to expect teachers to work longer and harder for less, or for the education and support available to pupils to be cut back further. The system is at breaking point.

“We have record numbers of teachers and headteachers who admit they are planning to leave the profession due to the impact of under-funding and real-terms pay cuts.

“The Conservative Party leadership candidates need to tell the country the truth – whether they would stick to current plans to deliver more real-terms spending cuts or restore education funding following a decade of Government under-investment.

“We also need the Government to deliver the additional investment recommended by the Government’s Education Recovery Commissioner, rather than expect schools to make do with less.

“Unless the next Prime Minister is willing to commit to delivering a substantially better deal which significantly improves the funding of schools in real terms, they cannot claim to be putting education first whilst children’s education continues to suffer.”