Maths Games Equals Wrong Answer For Schools Rebuilding Programme
Possibly no great surprise that the recession has bitten into the five billion pounds school’s rebuilding programme. Of equal concern is the further one billion pounds to be trimmed from general teaching resources. Is there anything left of Labour’s grand educational dream to improve our schools?
There’s not a lot left to show of Tony Blair’s grand electoral mantra of education, education, education. Followed by Gordon Brown’s grand plans the 13 year programme now appears in tatters. The long overdue schools rebuilding programme is now to be curtailed. With only 200 of the planned 750 schools completed this is a travesty of poor planning and clearly a devastating blow to the remaining schools whose plans are now dashed.
The cancellation, induced by the current economic crisis, can be laid to blame. But somewhere, somebody, must have been aware the investment needed for the scheme exceeded the bank balance by a huge margin. Clearly maths was not their strong point.
The commitment of head teachers and teachers takes yet another knock. Years of running their schools on a shoestring is never easy. Even though teaching staff have a honed resilience who can blame them for feeling utterly frustrated. Claims that our teaching standards have slipped over the years are met with reduced budgets at a time we need to catch up and excel in the world league tables. The curtailment of the rebuilding programme broke days after a furore about unqualified teaching assistants being consistently use to cover the absence of teachers. Guaranteed this procedure is used as a means of controlling costs.
A huge number of schools were built with a designed life span of 25 years. Population evolution can make the sitting of schools in urban locations complex. Subsequent social and commercial developments can relocate the educational centre of gravity. It can be pointless building a school that could ultimately be in the wrong place. There is a downside if the original sitting remains ideal. We ultimately need to rebuild any such schools at the end of its 25 years lifespan. These are the schools that are suffering. Inadequate structures, leaking roofs, outmoded facilities can drain the resolve and reserves. But schools are not alone. Even the Queen has suffered a budget cutback. Repairs of leaks in the roof of Buckingham Palace that are damaging furniture and furnishings are being delayed by up to ten years.
There may be a silver lining to all this. Schools have the opportunity to grasp additional operational freedom linked with an academy. Part of this status is the opportunity to migrate purchasing from the large operations to control a little more of their own destiny. Reduced operating costs and a keen eye for a bargain may change the thought process away from the educational quangos that have dominated school budgets. That essential item may now be on a smaller scale and cost a lot less to help control the budget, but it could appear this year rather than wait for years to be able to afford that all singing and dancing version.
Our Dunkirk spirit will have to emerge for the foreseeable future in our schools. Well versed in the concept, this may be the making of them. Let’s hope the outcome is the recovery in the schooling of our children. The government may have turned the lights out but opened the door to opportunity.
