Schools may lose five teachers each amid ‘funding crisis’

SECONDARY schools could have to cut five teachers each in the next two years to cope with a “funding crisis”, MPs have been warned.

Schools were promised a return to real-term 2010 funding levels by 2024 in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto. However, they are on course for a £2billion shortfall, according to 10 unions and education groups who have written to Conservative MPs urging them to honour the manifesto pledge.

MPs have been warned that the average secondary school will be facing a shortfall of between £200,000 and £250,000 by 2024, which equates to salaries for four to five teachers.

An average primary school will be facing a shortfall of £35,000 to £45,000 shortfall by September 2024, equating to two support staff or one teacher, according to the education bodies.

Signatories of the letter include Britain’s biggest teaching unions, as well as the National Governance Association, which represents school governors, and Parent-kind, an association for school PTAs.

School leaders have held crisis meetings in recent months to discuss how they can make cuts to stay afloat.

Budgets have been squeezed by teacher pay rises that have not been fully funded by the Government, and by energy price rises.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that by 2024, school spending per pupil will be 3 per cent lower in real terms than it was in 2010.

Teacher and support staff redundancies, bigger class sizes, fewer school trips and reduced catch-up provision

‘A funding shortfall of this scale cannot be absorbed without severely impacting the quality of [education]’

for children badly affected by the pandemic are all actions that schools are taking in response to funding pressures, the letter warned.

The letter urges MPs to stand behind the 2019 manifesto commitment to restoring funding levels.

“A funding shortfall of this scale cannot be absorbed by schools and colleges without severely impacting the quality of [education],” it states.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We understand that schools [are] facing cost pressures, which is why we are providing schools with £53.8billion this year in core funding, including a cash increase of £4billion.”