Commenting on a written ministerial statement, published today, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"It is symptomatic of a department in chaos, that it should have to refer itself for formal review. Be it the RAAC crisis threatening the safety of schools, the year-on year failure to meet teacher recruitment and retention targets, or this latest debacle over calculating pupil numbers for 2024/25 school funding, it is clear that as far as education is concerned this Government has taken its eye off the ball.
“Quality of provision and pupil learning bear the brunt of this inattention, especially that of the most disadvantaged. Nick Gibb should immediately return to the Commons and restore the £370m his Department’s error will deprive from school budgets next year. And in the Autumn Statement we need to see a true step-change in the levels of education investment, starting with £4.4bn per year extra that the Office of Government Property calculates is needed to restore the school estate in line with best practice."