‘At the moment it’s just promises, but the devil will be in the detail’
The city’s education chief, Cllr Louise Farthing, has welcomed the Government’s sentiment to level up education for disadvantaged areas, but is sceptical as to whether funding will materialise.
On Wednesday, Levelling UpSecretaryMichaelGoveunveiled the Government’s plan to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country, including a promise to “eliminateilliteracyandinnumeracy byrefocusingeducationspending on the most disadvantaged parts of the country”.
However, the report has beencriticisedforlackingsubstance, with 12 key promises identified but lacking detail as to how they will be achieved.
Cllr Farthing said: “Any additional funding for education would obviously be welcome buttheGovernmenthavebeen goodatpromisingbutnotgood at delivering.
"Wesawthatwiththetutoring programme which ended upwithashortageoftutorsand teachers having to take on additional workload.
"At the moment it’s just promises, but the devil will be in the detail. It’s very early days and until i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, I’m sceptical about the plan.”
The proposal has been criticised by the Labour Party for containing no new money with Mr Gove himself saying it wasabout“shiftingmoneyand power”,notnecessarilyproviding additional funding.
CllrFarthingadded:"There will be parents in Sunderland whohavedifficultyreadingand writing. Primary school children in Sunderland actually perform quite well but there’s obviouslymorewecoulddofor both children and adults if we had greater funding.”
"Redirection of funding to more disadvantaged areas should include Sunderland, but how are they going to define disadvantaged? Is the money going to be devolved to a local level so we can decide how it’s best used?
"There are talks going on in thebackgroundaboutapotential devolution deal. At the moment lots of national decisions are made based on what’s happening in London.”
John Hall, the North East NationalExecutiveofthecountry’s largest teaching union, the NASUWT, welcomes the principle of levelling up education but believes this should involve increased investment, “not simply a redistribution of the current pot”.
He added: “This would simply be robbing Peter to pay Paul. All schools will tell you they need money and so why shouldSomerset,forinstance, be robbed to pay for holes in funding in the North East?
"The proposal at the moment seems to be short on
substance and done to placate the electorate. If levelling up education is a priority then we would like to see the Governmentengagingwiththeunions and professional teachers.”
Director of the North East
Child Poverty Commission, Amanda Bailey, has also been left disappointed with the White Paper.
She said: “‘The Government’s commitment to spread opportunity and improve living
standards is welcome and absolutely critical for families across the North East.
"Andyet-despiteourregion having the UK’s fastest rising rate of child poverty - nowhere is this pivotal challenge even acknowledged in today’s longawaited White Paper, never mind included as an area for action. Nor is reducing child poverty listed as one of the measures of levelling up success."