Cash crisis schools are forced on to short week
Heads bring in shorter hours to balance the books as Tory austerity cripples education
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HEAD teachers desperately trying to balance the books due to Tory cuts are putting pupils on shorter weeks in a bid to save even more cash as the schools crisis deepens.
And they warn the drastic move could severely jeopardise the education of tens of thousands of children unless Theresa May ends her crippling austerity.
Many have been left with no choice but to bring in a 4.5-day week for kids as they cannot staff classrooms properly.
The measures come as a Mirror investigation found schools are so strapped for cash many special needs pupils are not getting support as heads have had to axe teaching assistants, leading to fears of behavioural problems.
That is coupled with a lack of basic equipment, growing class sizes, no cash to repair leaky buildings, staff shortages and cancelled school trips.
At least 24 schools across the land, including 14 in Birmingham alone, have ditched lessons on Friday afternoons. And more than 200 other heads have warned they are considering doing the same.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Union of Headteachers, said: “The idea that some schools have moved to a 4.5 day week and that others are considering the same option ought to be ringing serious alarm bells with the Government.
“School budgets are at breaking point. School leaders have made all the obvious savings, now they are faced with having to make major changes to the way they provide education.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, added: “Unless this is addressed a dire situation will only get worse. Children and young people deserve better than this bargain basement version of an education system.” Sending pupils home at lunchtime on Fridays means heads can employ fewer assistants to provide cover for teachers who are out of the classroom doing vital preparation work for other lessons. Many heads, with some begging parents to provide cash for basic equipment such as exercise books and
pens, have told how their schools will start the new term in debt. They expect the deficit to rise as their wage bills go up annually through statutory pay rises while income is static.
Kate Baptiste, head of St Monica’s Catholic Primary School in Enfield, North London, blasted Tory claims that education would be protected.
She said it simply meant schools were given the “same amount as previous years”. Kate added: “This hasn’t changed with inflation.
“I used to spend 80% of my budget on salaries, now it is 92%. The knock-on effect is that we have fewer resources for the children. Our deficit is now £77,000. Within three years, by 2020, it will be £377,668.
“We have fewer teaching assistants who can listen to children read individually and give support to those who need it. The future is very bleak.
“There will be a drop in standards. We will not be able to nurture children in the same way. The repercussions will be dire. Austerity measures will cause us to keep reducing the staffing.”
Jules White, head of a secondary school in West Sussex, said: “There is a drip, drip, drip effect of these savage cuts. Class sizes continue to rise and there are significant cuts to curricular and extra-curricular opportunities.
“Schools like mine are having to use funds earmarked for the most disadvantaged families to prop up our beleaguered core budgets.
“The Government must do far more to support our education system if it truly wants to end the burning social injustices that Theresa May spoke of when she came in to office.”
Louise Regan, head at Hillocks Primary School in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts, added: “You only have a finite budget and by the time you have paid your salaries there just isn’t anything left. There just isn’t enough money to help children with complex needs. They aren’t getting the same level of support that they did a few years ago. That will have the knock-on effect of an increase in exclusions.”
Despite Government claims it is spending more than ever on schools, in reality there has been an 8% cut in budgets since 2010, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The IFS said school funding would fall by nearly 3% between last year and 2021 even with the additional £1billion a year the Government is providing by slashing free school meals for infants. It is feared 400 of the worst-hit state nursery schools for under-fives face closure within 18 months without an injection of new money.
A survey of school support staff by UNISON released yesterday found drastic cuts, restructuring and stress are becoming the norm in schools.
More than four in five workers said they have suffered stress due to their workload in the past five years, with one in five going sick. Nearly three quarters revealed they were doing work they were not qualified for.
CASH-STARVED schools having to shut half-a-day a week is a damning indictment of Theresa May’s education cuts.
The Prime Minister is living in cloud-cuckoo land as she denies the damage she is inflicting on the youngest generations.
Schools closing early instead of remaining open five days a week is the last straw after teacher losses, sacking of support staff and appeals for parents to dip into their pockets to buy everything from toilet rolls to pens.
We live in the world’s sixth-largest economy and should invest in knowledge to compete with fast-risers like India, Brazil and China rather than send kids home to save cash.
Theresa May is either ignorant or lying when she boasts about Tory education spending. We will let you decide which. What unites everyone is the evidence that schools are going backwards, not forwards. Children need schools to teach them a full five days a week.