School funding a national emergency, say MPs

SCHOOLS budgets are facing a £5.1bn “black hole” and should be declared a “national emergency”, MPs have warned.

The pleas of Gateshead head teachers concerned for the futures of their schools were heard in the Houses of Parliament yesterday, after a petition launched by Blaydon primary head teacher Andy Ramanandi calling for an increase in school funding attracted over 100,000 signatures.

The debate was introduced by Blaydon MP Liz Twist, who said heads in her constituency were cutting back on “essential resources” including teaching staff, equipment, and even asbestos management. She said one in four schools in Gateshead would next year face redundancies, while local schools were turning to parents to ask for cash to keep going.

Calling for a longer debate on the issue, Ms Twist quoted Steve Haigh, head of Whickham Academy, who told her: “The more pressure on my budget, the more class sizes have had to increase ... head teachers are facing impossible choices. I feel every cut I have to make. Well concealed, painfully made, shamefully felt.”

At a packed Westminster Hall debate, Ms Twist was inundated with interruptions from MPs who had been contacted by teachers and heads in their constituencies.

Tim Loughton, a Conservative MP and former Department for Education minister said school funding was now a “national emergency”.

The Government says it’s putting more money than ever before into schools, with more than £1bn made available for this year and next.

Ms Twist claimed that due to rising costs “it’s simply not right to say that funding per pupil, which is the measure that really matters, has gone up”. She said: “If school funding per pupil had been maintained in value since 2015, school funding would be £5.1bn higher than it is now.”