New data shows that funding cuts have resulted in 69 per cent of comparable maintained schools in Wales facing real-terms cuts since 2010-11.
In total, according to figures from School Cuts Cymru, 922 schools in Wales have faced cuts, with real-terms per-pupil funding falling by £343 (7 per cent) for primary pupils, £388 (7 per cent) for secondary and £411 (2 per cent) for special schools.
The School Cuts Cymru website is run by the NEU teaching union, the Association of School and College Leaders and the NAHT school leaders’ union, supported by Parentkind and the National Governance Association.
Call to eradicate school funding cuts
The bodies are collectively calling for all political parties to commit to a plan to invest the funding needed to eradicate all school cuts. To restore funding back to 2010-11 levels in real terms for all schools in Wales, they say, would require an investment of £154 million.
Eithne Hughes, director of ASCL Cymru, said: “Schools in Wales are facing a dire funding situation. There desperately needs to be more investment in education to help schools support all of their pupils and deliver an ever-growing list of reforms.”
NAHT Cymru national secretary Laura Doel said: “These damaging cuts help explain why Welsh schools are being forced into impossible choices, such as whether to lay off teachers and teaching assistants or reduce the curriculum, none of which are good for either pupils’ learning or staff morale and wellbeing.”
The School Cuts website was established in 2016 to show the impact of government funding decisions on every mainstream school in Wales.
Impact on teacher recruitment and retention
Acting NEU Wales secretary Nicola Fitzpatrick said: “Real-terms pay cuts have been central to many of the issues blighting schools.
“It affects recruitment, with the Welsh government unable to meet its training targets year on year. We also see teachers leaving in droves, and too many of them just a handful of years after qualifying.”
