By Adrian Mcllellan And Gavin Mackintosh-
An e-petition about school funding in England has sparked a debated by MPs on Monday afternoon, after attracting over 100,000 signatures.
The petition began last year by head teachers in Gateshead, Durham, and has been extended by head teachers in several schools across the Uk. Birmingham schools in particular , mounted an extensive campaign to influenced parents to sign petitions aimed at holding the Department Of Education.
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The group says schools are having to make cuts to staffing, subjects and other activities, due to their income not keeping pace with rising costs. The British government says it has increased funding by significant amounts, including an extra £1.3bn across this year and the next. The Department Of Education alongside Ofsted has invested a lot of energy and money into raising the standard of education in British primary and secondary schools across the Uk, but many schools remain dissatisfied with the financial support received
In a letter to local parents, the Gateshead Head Teacher Association said: “We need the government to hear how damaging the cuts have been to our funding.
“Schools across Gateshead are making very difficult decisions which will impact upon the quality of education they can provide.
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“Many schools are having to cut back resources and reduce specialisms in subjects like music. All of this is ultimately detrimental for your child’s education.”
In January, a report by the Education Policy Institute said that almost a third of local authority secondary schools in England were unable to cover their costs.
It said the proportion of such schools with budgets in the red had almost quadrupled in four years and the average local authority secondary school debt was £483,000.
In a fresh attempt to raise the profile of funding, the e-petition says: “Schools are having to make difficult choices on how to spend their limited funding as their income has not kept pace with the rise in costs since 2010.
“All schools are working very hard to ‘make ends meet’ but this is becoming increasingly difficult and verging on almost impossible.”
It says that schools have had to cut back on a range of things, such as teaching and non-teaching staff, support for vulnerable pupils, teaching resources, extra-curricular activities and subject choices in secondary schools.
In response to the petition, the Department for Education said: “We recognise schools are facing budgeting challenges and we are asking them to do more.
“We have increased funding by an extra £1.3bn across this year and next, over and above previous spending plans.”
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