A synopsis:
3000 headteachers from 14 counties
have written to parents to highlight some issues that they may want to ask
their electoral candidates about during the campaign. They include:
- £3bn cut in funding for schools.
- The difficulty attracting quality teachers.
- The difficulty recruiting in some subject areas.
They haven’t mentioned the £6bn
spent, over the market rate, on potential free school sites because they are
the preferred school type of this government.
They haven’t mentioned that the
conditions (marking, planning, continual exam tinkering) teachers work under
are driving them away, with recruitment in some subject areas not hitting
targets for 5 years in a row.
Party politics is harming our
children’s education and that is a major part of why I am standing as
independent candidate in this election.
If you want to read the whole article,
then read on.
All my thoughts:
My daughter’s school, as well as
around 3000 other schools from 14 counties, have sent a letter to all their
parents explaining why schools are facing financial difficulties.
The government and Department for
Education are claiming two things:
- Education funding is at record levels.
- They are introducing a “Fairer Funding Formula” to redistribute the record funding more equally around the country.
Along with the letter there is a
list of suggestions that parents can challenge parliamentary candidates with. These
include, in no particular order:
- £3bn being withdrawn from the schools budget in England, which will mean a fall of around £400 per pupil per year for many school according to the banners many schools have hanging on their gate.
- Recruitment, especially in subjects such as Maths, Science, English and Computer Science is becoming problematic as schools can’t compete financially with business for these teachers’ skills.
- Class sizes increasing as the number of teachers a school can afford are falling.
- Reduction in the subjects a school can offer meaning that students find it increasingly difficult to choose an education path that enthuses them.
- Extra-curricular activities can no longer run as schools must save money.
These are all extremely valid and
this issue is a major driver behind my decision to stand as an independent
candidate in this election. What is not included is the following:
- The Department for Education have spent £6bn on paying over the odds for potential free school sites. These schools don’t actually exist, but £6bn has been spent because the current government like free schools. Free schools can be very good; they can also be very bad (some have been forcibly closed). Free schools have just as much chance of succeeding as any other type of school but cost, according to the National Audit Office, around double what other schools cost.
- Increased class sizes mean extra work (marking, setting tasks and so on) for teachers who are already hard to recruit. Whilst the hours may seem great (and the holidays of course) many hours outside of the perceived school day are taken up with marking, planning and preparation with this becoming an ever increasing issue as class size grow, and remember this happens for no extra pay and this eats in to family and social life.
- With diminished funds to attract staff the only teachers schools can afford are inexperienced ones because they are at the lower end of the pay scale. Inexperienced teachers can be brilliant but the general consensus in the profession is that 10 years experience produces a “good” or “outstanding” teacher.
- The continual changes in curriculum based upon nothing other than the current incumbent of Minister for Education’s preferences is demoralising for teachers and is another reason why schools are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit.
- Targets in teacher training for maths, physics and design technology have not been met in 5 years, yet figures are boosted by over-recruitment in other subjects meaning that maths, physics and design technology lessons are regularly taught by non-specialists.
Party politicians only give the version
of facts that favours their party’s policy, and omit facts that show them in a
poor light, therefore the general public never get the complete story. This
doesn’t help anyone.
This is why we need independent candidates,
if only to keep party politicians honest.
