England's schools crisis: Missing teachers, leaky roofs, and budgets crunched
Headteachers call for urgent funding to avoid a breakdown in the education system, amid crumbling buildings, staff shortages and deteriorating pupil behaviour
School leaders highlighted severe funding cuts that mean there is no money to fix roofs that leak in the rain (Photo: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty)
Schools will be plunged into “crisis” unless they quickly receive more cash to fix crumbling buildings and help plug teacher shortages, unions and headteachers are warning.
Primary school children are being taught in “sheds” and there is no money for replacement classrooms or to fix roofs that leak in the rain, they say.
Meanwhile, the staff recruitment and retention crisis has deepened, with schools struggling to fill teaching posts across the board, leading to larger classes and low morale.
School leaders are demanding “urgent action” from the Government to avoid a breakdown in the education system and are warning of deteriorating pupil behaviour.
“We’re worried about a potential crisis ahead of us. If we don’t get the support we need then it’s over the horizon,” Pepe Di’lasio, head of Wales High School, Rotherham, and incoming general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), told i.
Additional disruption to children’s education is threatened by the prospect of a new wave of teacher strikes, with balloting already under way for both of the big two classroom teacher unions.
There are likely to be further calls for industrial action this weekend as the Easter teaching union conference season begins, with the profession more stretched than it has been for years.
Emmanuel Botwe, headteacher at Tytherington School in Macclesfield, said it needs ‘urgent’ funding to fix leaky classrooms
The Department for Education (DfE) says school funding is rising to its “highest level ever in real terms per pupil” next year.
However, i has interviewed leaders of the four main teaching unions who have painted a bleak picture as their members run out of patience. Some are saying the “crisis” is already here.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) – the largest teachers’ union – said schools were on the verge of “grinding to a halt” and needed urgent change.
England’s school system would no longer be able to meet its statutory obligations to young people “en masse” – particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), he told i.
Schools are legally required to meet children’s education, health and care plans (EHCP) – but headteachers say their resources are stretched as more children are getting ECHPs while real-terms funding has decreased. This leaves schools with no budget to cover the extra cost.
Physical conditions are another key issue, with classrooms leaking in the rain and headteachers relying on charity for urgent repairs.
Last year, concerns around reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) forced thousands of pupils to return to remote learning, after the Government ordered the urgent closure of school buildings at risk of collapse.
Mr Kebede told i the RAAC crisis was only the “tip of a very big iceberg” – and even that is “far from resolved”.
He added: “Whether it’s faulty windows, inefficient heating systems, not enough classrooms, children taught in Portacabins for extended periods – the school estate is in a general dire state repair beyond just the crumbling concrete.”
Primary school children taught in ‘sheds’
Steve Hitchcock says temporary classrooms have become permanent
Steve Hitchcock, head of St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, said his pupils have been taught in “sheds” for years, because new classrooms cost up to £700,000.
His school was on a list to get new classrooms built, but was told in recent years that the list “no longer exists” due to cutbacks in capital funding.
This means the temporary classrooms – which were “more like sheds” – have become permanent, he told i.
“I’m throwing good money to keep really bad classrooms going,” Mr Hitchcock said. “Heat just goes out through the doors because the windows and the walls are not insulated.
“There’s always stuff going wrong with them; we’ve had problems with the toilets and the sewage. We’ve had problems with the stanchions rusting away and the walkways needed to be reclad.”
Mr Hitchcock was on a list for new classrooms – but it ‘no longer exists’ due to funding cuts
He said he had spent “tens of thousands of pounds” on upkeep for the classrooms, which could have been invested elsewhere.
The school also needs new roofs on two buildings, new carpets in most classrooms, new lighting, and a new heating system.
All the repairs needed would cost up to £200,000, which is unfeasible as the school gets just £7,000 of capital funding from the Department for Education each year.
But Mr Hitchcock has to make cutbacks each year, recently opting out of Devon’s library service, meaning 500 books were returned to the council.
Instead, the school will rely on donations from the local community, as it has done in the past to raise funds for urgent repairs.
“We don’t have enough money each year to make ends meet so we’re constantly having to make cutbacks,” he told i. “I say this every year but I can’t believe how we’re still able to make cutbacks – what else is there left to trim?”
Children are cold in winter and hot in the summer
Schools are also warning of severe staff shortages, a record number of pupils missing from education, and increasingly poor behaviour.
New Government figures released last week revealed that the unauthorised absence rate in England’s schools increased from 2.1 per cent in 2021/22 to 2.4 in 2022/23, compared to just 1.4 per cent during 2018/19, the last school year before the Covid pandemic.
Meanwhile the independent National Foundation for Educational Research said the “critical state” of teacher supply in England was posing a “substantial risk” to the quality of education that children receive.
Emmanuel Botwe, headteacher at Tytherington School in Macclesfield, said his school was “desperate” to recruit for several positions, and his senior leaders were worried staff could leave due to low pay.
“Something needs to be done urgently,” he told i. His school – like many others across the country – requires urgent funding to pay for leaky classrooms, to repair buildings that are not fit for purpose, and to pay salaries that attract and retain staff members.
Mr Botwe said he was struggling to recruit teachers “across the board” rather than just traditionally scarce subjects like maths, computer science and physics.
Finding modern foreign language teachers has become “incredibly difficult” due to fewer people taking languages at university. The school is also finding it difficult to recruit support staff such as cleaners, IT technicians and teaching assistants.
“We recently lost an IT technician to a firm in America, because they could double his salary with him working at home,” Mr Botwe told i.
“We are seeing a significant crisis where teachers and headteachers are doing their utmost to keep things going but that is almost becoming impossible,” he told i.
“If this were to continue for much longer, we’re going to be seeing even more children impacted and even more futures limited, if not ruined.”
The results of a fresh NASUWT strike ballot over pay and workload is due soon. And a strike ballot by the NEU over pay and funding closes on Thursday.
Mr Kebede said state-educated children risked being “sold short” by teacher shortages, large class sizes, burnt-out staff members and classes due disrupted by the behaviour issues that had worsened since the pandemic.
Behaviour problems were becoming “much more pronounced” in schools – and this “cannot be detached from the crisis in funding”, he said.
“There has been an increase in pupil need, a reduction in support staff and greater class sizes,” he added, saying that the Government had “failed to invest in post-pandemic recovery” and in young people’s social, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Rising absence rates were also indicative of a “crisis in engagement”, which Mr Kebede argued was linked to “high-stakes testing and a very narrow curriculum”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said nearly every problem facing schools was underpinned by “a decade of real-terms funding cuts”.
“The constant churn in political leadership and a lack of a clear and consistent strategy certainly has not helped the situation either,” he said.
“Since I became general secretary of the NAHT in 2017, I have seen eight education secretaries and four prime ministers. Schools need continuity, investment, and a long-term plan.”
The DfE points to “a world class education system, where standards continue to rise with 90 per cent of schools now judged to be Good or Outstanding last year, up from 68 per cent in 2010”. But its comparison fails to take account of changes to Ofsted’s school inspection regime over that period.
“Children are internationally recognised as the ‘best in the west [sic]’ at reading,” a DfE spokesperson added.
“To ensure standards remain high, school funding is rising to £60.7bn next year, the highest level ever in real terms per pupil, and we have implemented the highest pay award in 30 years for teachers as well as taking steps to support teacher wellbeing and ease workload pressures.
“What’s more, we’ve invested over £15bn since 2015 to improve our school buildings, and in just a matter of months we have completed our identification programme and confirmed how we will fund removal of RAAC from our schools and colleges for good.”
