Education secretary Gillian Keegan clashed with her Labour counterpart, Bridget Phillipson, over the teacher pay dispute during Education Questions in Parliament today.
Ms Keegan faced MPs after it was announced that the government was offering teachers a 6.5 per cent pay rise for next year, which is expected to bring an end to the ongoing teacher strikes.
Government ministers also faced questions over standards in primary schools, gender identities and when they will legislate to create area-wide registers for children who are not in school.
Here are the six main takeaways from the debate:
1. Keegan urged to apologise for teacher strikes
Ms Phillipson asked the education secretary to apologise for the recent wave of teacher strikes, which Labour claimed Ms Keegan was responsible for.
The shadow education secretary said ministers had known for months that teachers were likely to strike over pay but had “refused to talk” and had only last week acted to resolve the dispute.
Ms Phillipson said: “Will [Ms Keegan] now take this opportunity to apologise to parents for that completely needless disruption to their children’s education?”
In response, the education secretary said: “Since I have come into this job at the end of October, the unions asked for an extra £2 billion. I delivered it.
“Families asked for childcare. I delivered it. The STRB [School Teachers’ Review Body] asked for 6.5 per cent for teachers. I’ve delivered it. It had to be funded. I’ve delivered it. I have worked to deliver every single day in this job.”
2. Gender guidance for schools coming in the ‘near term’
Ms Keegan raised the issue of the long-awaited gender guidance for schools in Parliament today.
She said: “It is true that some schools now are asking for guidance in this area. We do intend to bring forward guidance. I am working with the equalities minister to bring that forward in the near term.”
It was reported yesterday that the guidance is expected to be published this week.
Yesterday equalities minister Kemi Badenoch told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We are producing guidance for schools to know how to deal with children who are experiencing gender distress.
“I can’t go into the specifics of what is going to be in the guidance but what your viewers can be reassured of is we’re doing everything we can to bring clarity.”
3. Gibb ‘confident’ of meeting 2030 KS2 target
Schools minister Nick Gibb told MPs that he was “confident” that the country will meet the government target of 90 per cent of pupils hitting the expected standards in reading, writing and maths in key stage 2 by 2030.
His comments came in response to a question from shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan, who asked why tens of thousands of children had left primary school, since this target had been announced, without achieving it.
Mr Gibb responded that Mr Morgan was aware that, as a result of the Covid pandemic, there had been “a fall” in writing and maths. He added: “Actually, reading rose and then came down two points.”
“Reading standards today are broadly similar to where they were prior to the pandemic and we know that since 2010, reading and maths have increased enormously...and I am confident that we will meet the 90 per cent target by 2030,” Mr Gibb said today.
4. Ministers urged to legislate on ‘not in school’ registers
Former schools minister Robin Walker urged the government to adopt a private member’s bill to create statutory registers for local authorities of all children in their area who are not in school.
The Commons Education Select Committee chair highlighted the bill put forward by fellow Conservative committee member Flick Drummond.
The government had planned to introduce these registers as part of its Schools Bill, before the legislation was shelved last year.
Last year Ms Keegan told the committee that creating the registers was still a priority following the collapse of the bill. She faced questions on this today from both Mr Walker and Ms Drummond.
In response, the education secretary said: “My department remains committed to legislating for statutory local authority registers of children not in school and will do so at the next suitable legislative opportunity when parliamentary time allows.”
5. Covid school closures a ‘disaster’
Ms Keegan was asked by former government minister Esther McVey if the government would treat schools as “essential infrastructure” in future to ensure that they stay open during national emergencies. Ms McVey said that “closures” during the pandemic had been a “disaster”.
Ms Keegan said the country had lessons to learn from the pandemic but that decisions on restricting access to schools were based on medical advice.
She pointed out that schools stayed open during the pandemic to continue teaching “key cohorts supporting our NHS and the most vulnerable, such as those with special educational needs”.
She added: “But I do fully share her concerns on the impacts the pandemic has had on attainment, attendance and mental health, and she knows we are working really hard to recover, making almost £5 billion available for recovery.
“I can assure (Ms McVey) we will always seek to minimise the disruption to education in emergency situations, and I’m sure that we all have a lot to learn from the experience during the last pandemic and the impact that had on children.”
She added that “the decisions that we took were led by medical advice”.
6. Funding: Schools are ‘short of chairs’
Ms Keegan told MPs that the government was providing the highest level of education funding in the country’s history with £60 billion being provided to schools for 2024-25.
She mentioned this figure, which the government has also promoted in a press release today, in response to a question on school funding.
But Labour’s Durham MP, Mary Kelly Foy, said schools in her constituency faced an “absence of furniture and equipment, with children even carrying chairs between lessons so there is somewhere to sit”.
She added: “One teacher told me, ‘It is like being a baker without any flour, a delivery driver without a van, an IT specialist without a computer,’ so when is the department going to provide the absolute basics for our schools in Durham?”
