Education of young people cannot be allowed to suffer due to college funding pressures

Education of young people cannot be allowed to suffer due to college funding pressures - The Yorkshire Post says

Headteachers and union leaders have repeatedly warned of a funding crisis that is squeezing schools up and down the country. Whilst it is primary and secondary institutions that are often the focus, today’s report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) highlights that the nation’s colleges and sixth-form centres are not immune from financial pressures either.

Funding for sixth form and colleges in England has fallen by 16% since the start of this decade, according to a new report. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

The report claims that rising numbers are falling into deficit because real-term funding per pupil has dropped by 16 per cent in the past nine years and paints a worrying picture of deteriorating staff wages and a fall in student learning hours, including in academic subjects, as a result. It comes little over six months after principals told this newspaper that students were being “short-changed” and resources were stretched, as 15 college settings across Yorkshire joined up to the Love Our Colleges campaign, lobbying Parliament for extra cash.

It simply cannot be acceptable that the education of our young people is being allowed to suffer, and particularly at such a pivotal point as 16 to 19, when they are making the transition into adulthood and many are also beginning to put in place the building blocks for their careers to come.

The Department for Education has acknowledged the “vital” role that school sixth-forms and colleges have to play “in making sure people have the skills they need to get on in life”. But the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders claims that they are starved of the money they need.

If the Government, as it claims, is “looking carefully” at 16 to 19 funding rates in the run up to the Spending Review, perhaps it would do well to pay heed to the concerns raised in today’s report, which is calling for an urgent review of the financial situation. For after all, it is the quality of education and support for our young people that will be impacted the most.