Education: managing the cuts

By Jim Sweetman / @jimbo9848

All across public service, it is inevitable that there will be significant cuts in expenditure over the next three years. Efficiency savings will be required either party. Current initiatives and strategies and the big education quangos will have to justify their budgets and their continued existence.

With the Conservatives in power, the cuts would be immediate and unconsidered with a freeze on new spending, non-essential replacement appointments, new buildings and school support. With Labour, the frontline services will be defended for at least two years and the economies will be managed more carefully. Given that opportunity, waiting for it to happen should not be an option for schools and teachers. If there have to be cuts, why not let the frontline be involved in the decisions?

It is often said that people are the biggest expense in education so that is where the axe must fall first. It is easy to guess how that will play out: support staff will be hardest hit in the first wave and then the local authorities will find themselves making redundancies. There will be school closure programmes and teacher vacancies will be left unfilled in a haphazard way. The teacher unions will be angry. Sensible agreements will be torn up and replaced by confrontation and work to contract episodes that damage morale, the system and children. We’ve been down that road before.

Do we have to fall into that pattern? Why not turn it on its head and see people as the best asset that education has? Start from there and see what follows. Get schools to develop some ground rules for themselves from the common starting point of keeping people in jobs and building better teams. Recognise that teachers and support staff will have to be more adaptable, the curriculum may have to be trimmed and resourcing hit hard but keep teaching and learning defended. Assume that anyone who leaves will not be replaced but that the team will find the workarounds and use its own expertise to keep the school on course. Possibly, decide from the outset that if a senior leader goes then they will not be replaced at that level and with those responsibilities.

Brutally examine the big projects. This is not the time to be building academies from scratch, experimenting with new and unproven types of schools or spending a fortune on federations unless there are clear and immediate gains either in saving money or raising standards. In the same way, technology infrastructure developments may have to be delayed. The National Strategies have had their day and need winding up fast. It is the core work of the school that has to go ahead.

That core job cannot be funded at current levels. Realistically, assume an overall cutback of at least 10% and understand that if the team is reduced by natural wastage, and there is less money, then the job has to be made cheaper and easier. Currently, schools spend more on examinations than on books and UK school children are among the most tested and examined in the world so, firstly, finish off the SAT experiment and dump the key stage 2 tests. Give the pretested papers for the next two years to schools as a basis for developing their own self assessments on the basis of the knowledge about standards they have accrued over the years. Let schools colonise the new primary curriculum over time and trust headteachers to introduce it. Don’t waste money on fat folders of paper guidance.

Secondly, help secondary schools by threatening to nationalise the delivery and testing of GCSE English, Maths and IT unless the GCSE examination boards develop common simplified specifications with economies achieved through paperless technology and a teacher assessment to limit the test burden. Aim to deliver this basic suite of competence testing to schools at less than half of the current price. Fund pupils for no more than eight certifications to focus energies and to discourage the accumulation of GCSEs by weight rather than quality.

Put Ofqual in charge of this development as the certifications accrediting agency and close down QCDA which has a a poor record of offering value for money and will have less to do without SATs. Use these basic qualifications, instead of extra functional skill tests, to verify diplomas and allow the diploma programme to be led by demand from the skill and employment sectors so that it grows organically. Its expansion may be slower but the growth will then be sustainable.

Maintain standards by introducing standardised tests for a controlled sample of pupils each year in year 6 and use the new common suite of tests in year 11 to measure the progress of the system nationally and within local authorities. This will not provide school level data which is a blessing so prospective parents will have to judge schools on their merits instead!

Cut Ofsted to the bone as an organisation to regulate the self assessments made by schools and local authorities. If it cannot find a way to quality assure without intervention, close it down. Reducing the numbers of bodies to which schools are accountable delivers a reduction in workload and stress for senior school leadership teams. Decoupling accountability and school improvement from assessment by Ofsted is a win-win situation. Reduce the overlaps between the Training and Development Agency and the National College so that they operate in tandem. Close down BECTA which has lost its way in terms of education. Encourage schools to develop their own CPD and to train their own staffs as experts.

What about teacher supply? If schools do not appoint how can supply be protected? Put third year degree trainees in schools as novice teachers – somewhere between support and full time teachers so that they complete their training on the job. Offer a similar deal to post-graduates who cannot obtain scarce jobs but, if they work in school for a year, pay them less but offer a reduction in their student loan debt for every term that they work. Use them to support extended hours in all schools for ICT and homework clubs, additional support for literacy and numeracy and the maintenance of non contact time for teachers.

Devolve any remaining budget to headteachers and schools. Take a sharp knife to anything which looks like an ovehead or an on-cost. Be absolutely rigorous about costs in every area and, if it doesn’t support teaching and learning, don’t do it. Never do anything in a more complicated way or in ways that increase the burdens on teachers and simplify the school endeavour wherever possible. Expect the local authority to be doing the same and to be slashing bureaucracy, avoiding duplication and remodelling its staff.

These are some of the ways for public service to face up to a tough economic climate but also to keep people in schools and to value them, maintain good employer relationships and focus on the work of teaching and learning. Use synergies like these as the efficiency savings so that less testing equals better teaching and local accountability means less inspection, reduced workloads and less stress.

Telling teachers to vote Labour and protect the frontline might win their votes, but trusting them to run the show certainly will.