...and if that’s not bad enough, Hunt’s hired another Blairite for schools role
SCHOOLS will receive an extra £2.3 billion a year in an attempt to boost the economy in the long-term.
Jeremy Hunt said that a total of £4.6 billion will be invested over the next two years as he aimed to protect education.
The announcement was met with a mixed reaction from the teaching unions, with some arguing that it would not be enough to fill budget holes.
The Chancellor also faced criticism over his choice of adviser to help with the skills reform programme – the Blairite Sir Michael Barber.
The educationalist was chief adviser on education to New Labour from 1997 to 2001, when the then prime minister Tony Blair claimed his top priority was: ‘Education, education, education.’ He also headed the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit for the Blair government. A former teacher, Sir Michael became a partner at the McKinsey management consultancy.
The move is an attempt to garner crossparty support, but there was criticism on social media yesterday.
Former Tory policy adviser Dr Chris Newton said: ‘Vote Tory, get Michael Barber. What’s the point?’
Labour parliamentary assistant Callum Parrish added: ‘In that case, why not just allow Labour to run the show?’
Delivering his Autumn Statement, Mr Hunt said that ‘being pro-education is being pro-growth’. He added that he would go beyond ‘protecting’ the schools budget and ‘increase’ it, because the Government wanted school standards ‘to continue to rise for every child’.
He said: ‘As Chancellor, I want to know the answer to one simple question – will every young person leave the education system with the skills they would get in Japan, Germany or Switzerland?’
Schools have faced a range of financial pressures from soaring energy costs, to staff pay rises and other inflationary costs.
Geoff Barton, of headteachers’ union ASCL, described the increased funding as ‘positive news for education’.
But Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: ‘[It] will not be sufficient to prevent schools from having to make cuts.’