10 Gary Rowells
Striker
I agree with much of what you say but its not as simple as to say they are under funded. Firstly I would say the school's I know about (my wife's school, my kids school, another school I am involved with) are better than they ever have been in terms of the education the kids get. Funding is becoming a real issue but hasn't bitten yet as you describe. One of the big problem is that all schools get different amounts per pupil. One school in the borough that my kids have gone to get more than £1k per pupil more than my kids school. Also, the average the Newcastle school's get per pupil is higher than the average that South Tyneside school's get which, in turn, is higher than the average that Sunderland schools get. So, if your kids go to a Newcastle school the funding is not nearly such a problem. Interesting that the school that is shutting in South Tyneside due to its failure, South Shields School gets the most funding and is not an Academy.Like any business, if you starve it of cash, cut corners and dont invest it goes tits up. Schools should never be seen as businesses, they are too important for that but purely from a business perspective (the way this govt wants to run them) they have created a model that is destined to fail.
Look at private schools, they provide fantastic facilities and they cost upwards of £30k a year per pupil.....The public sector schools are expected to compete with these schools on less than £5k per pupil, how on earth is that ever going to work?
Huge teacher shortage, country is desperate. Please sign up and show all the lazy bone idle teachers across the profession how the skills and hard work of enlightened people like you can transform our schools....Genuinely, if you can get the kind of results your hard work clearly can then you will be worth a fortune to the profession.
Tax people more, unpopular but honest.....You cannot continue to run vital services like education/NHS/police etc on skeleton staff and funding.
As a tax payer I have no issue with paying more tax to fund vital services as is still massively cheaper than paying school fees, private health care etc.
I fear that one day (and it wont be far off if the tories stay in charge) we will look back to the days of a free at the point of delivery healthcare system and free education as some kind of 20th Century eutopia
Its not, its the absolute foundations of everything this country has stood for since the second WW opened our eyes to the world of shit that exists around the world.
Additionally despite the poor funding the education the kids are getting is better with each year - the measures of Maths and English are getting better and better. The education my kids have received is light years ahead of what I got in the '70's and '80's. That said, my view, as a school governor, is that the funding problem in schools could be about to blow. So, I disagree with the doom and gloom you describe because my experience is that that is not the reality. However, unless addressed I think the scenarios you describe could develop if the funding problem is not addressed.