School funding cuts blasted as ‘absolute scandal’
CAMPAIGNERS against school cuts have said the impact of years of funding shortfalls are now becoming critical.
Anger at the state of Kirklees schools has been building since the Examiner revealed that headteacher Andy Blakeley, from Hopton Primary School in Mirfield, was teaching 120 pupils on his own and also considering closing school early on Fridays.
Now Colne Valley MP Thelma Walker, a former headteacher, has said her constituency has a £1.7m funding shortfall for primary schools alone.
The School Cuts website, run by six trade unions, estimates that Kirklees schools have lost £15 million in funding in the past five years – £261 per pupil – with 155 out of 160 schools facing real terms cuts.
Hazel Danson, the Kirklees rep for the National Education Union (NEU), formerly the NUT, said: “The funding of our schools is an absolute scandal.”
The long serving union official said she had heard of senior staff taking on school dinner duties, teachers having to buy their own glue sticks and at least one school where a small photocopying budget meant staff were often banned from making copies once the ink and paper ran out.
She said many schools in Kirklees were cutting staff and considering restructures and mergers.
She added: “Anyone involved in education understands that the cuts are getting to the point where they are crippling everything and preventing us from providing children the education they deserve and need.
“We’ve been saying for years this was a ticking time-bomb, and now it’s really starting to get critical.
“The hardest hit are support staff, but these people are not a luxury anymore, they’re critically important.
“The other areas suffering are special educational needs, nursery schools and sixth forms.”
Meanwhile, the Rev Evelyne Barrow, headteacher at Skelmanthorpe’s St Aidan’s CE Academy, has revealed more behind her recent plea to her MP for more cash.
She said: “The problem is the amount coming in has not increased but the amount going out has.
“We are funded on the number of pupils, which is fine if you’re a decent sized primary school, but is not equitable if you’re a small school.
“The amount we get as a lump sum is going down, year on year, but everything we pay for, such as gas, electricity and catering is going up.
“Teachers wages are also going up. The Government said it would fund that but it has only done so for one year.
“So we’re being asked to find more and more money before we’ve even started on resources for the children.”
MP Mrs Walker has raised the issues in Parliament and said: “Since 2010 schools locally and nationally have faced unprecedented and relentless real term cuts to their budgets.
“That has nothing but a negative effect on the education our children, and future leaders, are receiving.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Since 2017, we have given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school, while allocating the biggest increases underfunded.
“Kirklees is receiving an increase of 2.4 per cent per pupil in 2019-20, compared to 2017-18, which amounts to an extra £12.8 million when rising pupil numbers are taken into account,” added the spokesperson.