You may have seen a recent speech from Rishi Sunak. It was an election speech in all but name, delivered at the headquarters of the Policy Exchange think-tank in London.
Following his humiliation at the local elections, the prime minister desperately wants to move the political conversation onto the future and the "transformational" years ahead. In education terms, this amounts to very little. His speech referred to how "building on the success of the last 14 years, we will create a truly world-class education system".
I ask you: do the last 14 years feel like a success? As our School Cuts website documents, 70% of schools in England have less funding in real terms than in 2010, leading us to have some of the largest class sizes in Europe and a recruitment and retention crisis that sees a third of teachers leave within five years of qualifying.
And as for the future, Mr Sunak talks again about maths. This is still his big thing, and part of a previously announced intention to make maths compulsory until 18.
I agree that maths is a vital skill but in spite of his banging that drum for more than a year now, the prime minister has done nothing to move the dial on teacher training recruitment.
The government reached just 63% of its trainee target in maths this year. You cannot deliver expanded maths teaching to 18 without many more maths teachers. You cannot just wish something into existence.
The election will be a judgement on 14 years in power – and the yawning gap between what the government says is happening and the reality on the ground.
Parties in power depend on the fading memory of voters when they reach the ballot box. They hope that we will have forgotten about the mishandling of Covid, the Christmas parties at Number 10, and Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership.
I can assure the prime minister that for parents, carers and all school staff, an education system crumbling at the hands of a government unwilling to give proper care and attention will not be forgotten. They see the effects every day.
To take one example – the government has cut funding for schools to maintain the buildings and facilities they need to teach our children. NEU analysis of published data has found that the cumulative shortfall since 2010 is a staggering £44.3bn
The result is buildings in disrepair. As one secondary teacher told us: “I’ve been at my school for 12 years now and ever since I joined, the heating boilers have been on their last legs. This year they were finally condemned and we had weeks with no heating at all. One morning my classroom was 11°C when I arrived at school.”
On my first day in office as general secretary, last September, I was called upon to react to the emerging RAAC crisis. Children in more than 100 schools couldn’t start school on time because ceilings were falling in and posing a risk to their lives.
We have seen children learning in temporary cabins, safety issues causing disruption to timetables, and schools without adequate sports, science, and arts facilities. Why would anyone want five more years of that? Is that what Sunak means by “world class”?
A report from the Committee of Public Accounts (CPA, 2023) in November warned that the £1.3bn a year that has been allocated by the government was only enough to rebuild or refurbish 50 schools a year. At that rate, the government’s School Rebuilding Programme will take 460 years to complete its work. That is many more generations of children to fail.
To restore capital funding to that recommended as best practice by the Office for Government Property, schools need £4.4bn in capital funding. We heard nothing from the chancellor in the Autumn Statement or Spring Budget – both still in recent memory – and that is all you need to know about this government's attitude to school buildings.
So, to that 14-year legacy. It began with Michael Gove’s reform mania and ends with Gillian Keegan’s deep denial about the spiralling problems within the education sector. Their own mistakes are coming home to roost. This is nothing for Rishi Sunak to boast about.
- Daniel Kebede is general secretary of the National Education Union. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/daniel-kebede
Further information & resources
- School Cuts: https://schoolcuts.org.uk/