Public spending on education in Britain will fall by more than 13 per cent in real terms – the largest cuts since the post-war, austerity-ridden 1950s – by the end of this Parliament, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The biggest losers will be not just early years schoolchildren but also 16-19-year old university hopefuls struggling to stay on for A-levels who will see a 20 per cent cut in available funding.
The cuts – averaging 3.5 per cent a year – are in stark contrast with the commitment to education spending under the previous Labour Government.
Spending on building or upgrading new schools will be more than halved following the scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future programme and higher education spending reduced by 40 per cent as part of an overall shift to push the sector from public funding to private funding which has also seen a huge hike in tuition fees to £9000 a year in England. Education Secretary Michael Gove said this moved the financial burden to those who would most benefit from degrees.
The IFS’s Luke Sibieta, a co-author of the report, said: “Having risen by historically large amounts during the 2000s, the UK’s education budget is now set for an historically large fall over the next few years. Of course the key question is what these cuts in financial resources will mean for the outputs of the education system, such as young people’s exam results or earnings potential.” l
The IFS said public spending on education will fall close to the level of the late-1990s – when it dipped to 4.5 per cent, its lowest for decades.
The Department of Education insists spending “in cash terms” will actually be up by £3.6 billion over the next four years. Although virtually all schools will feel the cuts some will be able to offset them against the pupil premium payments for poorer children.
Mr Gove rejected findings that nursery age children would be affected by cuts and said the government was ensuring parents could get 15 hours of free pre-school learning for their toddlers.
Meanwhile, Unite, citing its own research carried out using Freedom of Information requests to councils in England and Wales, said one in five youth centres would be closed down by local authorities next year.
