Burning our money: Spending Without Result
Education, education, education.
And as everyone should have understood, that was going to cost money, money, money.
Since Labour came to power, spending on Britain's state schools has more than doubled. Last year they spent £44.7bn, up from £22.2bn in 1996-97 (see here and prior PESAs). Even adjusting for general inflation, the increase is over 60%, a massive uplift.
Fair enough you say. That's what the voters wanted.
But spending money is easy. What we haven't had is the results.
Let's just recap the latest revelations:
- Pre-primary skills among five-year olds are unchanged despite a £21bn programme to improve them (see this blog)
- 3Rs skills among seven-year olds are stalled, with eg 20% failing to reach the minimum expected standard in writing (see here)
- 3Rs skills among eleven-year olds are stalled, with 60% failing to reach the minimum expected standard in reading, writing, and maths (see this blog and this)
- Core attainment among fourteen-year olds is also stalled, with nearly 40% failing to reach the minimum expected standard in English, maths, and science (see here)
- At GCSE 54% still fail to gain 5 A-C grades including both English and Maths (see excellent Chris Woodhead article here)
- A Level results continue to soar, but we now know they are two whole grades easier than twenty years ago (see this blog)
Once again- as if we needed any further proof- the dirigiste techniques of Stalinist central planning and tractor output targets have simply failed to deliver.....
