Britain's state schools face funding crisis

State schools in England will have to find savings of 3.8 billion pounds(4.82 billion U.S. dollars) by 2019-20 to meet the cost of pay rises and health insurances, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said Wednesday.

The warning came as education secretary Justine Greening announced in the House of Commons a massive shake-up in the way thousands of state-run schools receive their funding from Westminster.

Greening confirmed that 10,000 schools will be better off under the new formula while a similar number will lose money.

Her announcement was condemned by the main opposition Labour party as well as the leaders of five trade unions representing teachers and school staff.

In its report the NAO said estimates show mainstream schools will have to find the savings, accounting for 8 percent of the total education budget to counteract cumulative cost pressures, such as pay rises and higher employer contributions to national insurance and the teachers' pension scheme.

State schools, says NAO, will need to make efficiency savings of 1.64 billion U.S. dollars through better procurement, and by using staff more efficiently to save the balance of 2.15 billion U.S. dollars.

The NAO says: "However, the Department of Education(DoE) has not clearly communicated to schools the scale and pace of the savings required. While it can show that schools should be able to achieve such savings without affecting educational outcomes, it does not know whether schools will achieve them in practice."

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said:"Mainstream schools have to make efficiency savings by 2019-20 against a background of growing pupil numbers and a real-terms reduction in funding per pupil.

"The DoE is looking to schools to finance high standards by making savings and operating more efficiently but has not yet completed its work to help schools secure crucial procurement and workforce savings."

Angela Rayner, the main opposition Labour's Shadow Education Secretary, accused Theresa May's Conservative government of cutting school budgets in real terms.

Rayner commented: "We are reaching a point where the only thing schools will have left to cut in order to make the savings are qualified teachers. All we have seen from this government is six years of turmoil in our schools and nothing to show for it. It is time they started concentrating on delivering an excellent education for all children, not just a lucky few."

Five trade unions, representing teachers and staff in the education sector, issued a joint statement in response to school funding.

They said Greening's plans for the reform of school funding will not solve a funding crisis facing schools and colleges.

"Our organisations, representing the overwhelming majority of teachers and school leaders, believe that the government must provide additional resources to support any changes to school funding," the five leaders aid.

"School funding is in fact frozen, but inflationary factors mean that schools face the biggest real terms cuts in a generation. We are already seeing job losses, increased class sizes and cuts to courses in our schools and colleges. Instead, we need to invest more - including in teacher pay - to respond to a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention."

Greening defended her reforms saying they will tackle an "historical postcode lottery in school funding".

"Funding every child fairly and according to their specific needs sits at the heart of delivering the government's pledge to build a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few," she said,

The DoE said in a statement: "Currently, disparities in the current school funding system mean a school could get 50 percent more if it were situated in another part of the country."

It said the new formula will ensure that children with similar needs attract similar levels of funding, regardless of where families happen to live. Endit