Former chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to become the UK’s prime minister, after being appointed the leader of the Conservative Party this afternoon.
Mr Sunak will become the third prime minister in under two months, and takes on the job during a cost-of-living crisis, with public services under financial strain.
He attended the independent Winchester College, before studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford.
With a fiscal statement due next Monday, it is widely expected that Mr Sunak’s government will make capital spending cuts and ask departments to look for savings.
But education unions have warned that Mr Sunak “must ensure that schools and colleges have the funding they need” and that on the “current trajectory”, they will “have to reduce the number of teachers and support staff they employ”.
What do we know about Rishi Sunak’s education policy proposals?
It is not yet known what Mr Sunak’s Cabinet will look like, who he will choose as his education secretary if Kit Malthouse is replaced, or what any programme of education reform might look like.
Under the Schools Bill, all schools would be part of, or “moving towards” joining, a multi-academy trust by 2030 - but the fate of the Bill is currently uncertain.
However, Mr Sunak gave some early indications of his approach to education during the Conservative Party leadership contest in the summer.
For example, Mr Sunak said he would look to introduce a new “British Baccalaureate”, which would involve students studying English and maths up to the age of 18.
He has also pledged to improve professional development for teachers, and expand the use of artificial intelligence and digital technology in classrooms to reduce teacher workload.
Furthermore, in August Mr Sunak pledged to open the 75 new free schools announced by the government in June.
On academy trusts, Mr Sunak has reportedly said he would allow them an “accountability holiday” for two years if they were to absorb underperforming schools.
Mr Sunak also said he will ask Ofsted to assess the quality of physical education in every school inspection it carries out. While vowing to continue the PE and Sports Premium, he said he wants to tighten the guidance on how it can be spent.
And he proposed that schools should be required to open after the school day or over the summer holidays to allow local communities to use their facilities.
Jonathan Simons, partner and head of education practice at Public First, said most of Mr Sunak’s comments during his summer leadership campaign “reflect core Conservative education reform principles” that show a “Nick Gibb [former schools minister] influence”.
Added to this, he said, is “a sprinkling of tech, reflecting Sunak’s personal interests”.
But the question, Mr Simons said, is “whether there is space for anything in the Department for Education beyond financial management and prudence up to 2024”.
Sunak ‘must address shortfall in education funding’
Cuts to the education budget will be strongly resisted by school leaders and teaching unions.
Commenting on Mr Sunak’s appointment as Tory leader, Steve Rollett, deputy chief executive officer of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), said it is “clear” that schools are “facing significant financial challenges, which will undermine their ability to provide the quality of education and wider experiences this generation of children and young people need and deserve”.
He added: “It is vital the new prime minister invests in the future by urgently addressing the shortfall in education funding.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said Mr Sunak “must demonstrate that he supports the state education system by funding it properly”.
He added: “We implore him to remember the importance of education as an investment not only in the life chances of children and young people, but in the economic future of the country, too, and to ensure that schools and colleges have the funding they need.
“On the current trajectory, it is inevitable that schools and colleges will have to reduce the number of teachers and support staff they employ, and that this will mean larger class sizes, cuts to the curriculum and less individualised support for students who need extra help.”
Over the weekend, the leaders of 13 organisations, including the CST, the NAHT school leaders’ union, the ASCL and the National Governance Association, wrote to all Conservative MPs, warning that the new prime minister must stick to the party’s pledge to return school funding to 2010 levels in real terms.
The threat of teacher strikes
Mr Sunak will inherit a lot of disquiet in the sector, with three education unions announcing formal ballots over strike action in the past fortnight.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, which is due to send out its ballots this Friday, said: ”300,000 members will be asked if they are willing to strike over the real-terms pay cut that was signed off by Rishi Sunak when chancellor.”
Dr Bousted added that teachers had seen a “20 per cent loss in pay since 2010, and 27 per cent for support staff over the same period”.
“The recruitment and retention crisis in the profession has endured for almost as long and shows no sign of improving. These issues need to be addressed by the incoming leader,” she said.
The latest data from the DfE revealed that the government had missed its target for secondary trainee teacher numbers by 40 per cent for the academic year 2021-22.
Schools face ‘impossible spending decisions’
On the issue of school funding, Dr Bousted said that schools in the “most disadvantaged communities” could be “hardest hit by this new wave of impossible spending decisions”.
“Serious capital investment in the repair of school buildings has also been deferred for too long,” she said.
In August of this year, Tes revealed that only around one-third of schools that submitted bids to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) had them accepted.
Warning on early years
Neil Leitch, chief executive officer of the Early Years Alliance, said it was ”absolutely vital that tackling the ongoing early years crisis in this country is made a top priority” by Mr Sunak.
Mr Leitch said that “years of neglect” and “underfunding” had left the sector in “an untenable situation”.
He added: “We urge Mr Sunak to scrap government plans to relax ratios in early years settings, and instead commit to the substantial investment needed to ensure the sector can not just survive but thrive in the years to come.”
