At Rikama Education, the consensus of the Budget 2018 for education was undesirable at best. We were all expecting a much higher amount of funding than £400million – will £10,000 per primary school and £50,000 per secondary school really make a difference?
Today marked the Budget 2018, Philip Hammond’s third Budget as chancellor. Many areas were discussed, from the state of the economy, a very brief mention of Brexit, to the funding of public services; one of these was funding to the countries’ education sector.
The government are committing to a one-off payment of £400million to help schools buy ‘the little extras they need.’ I am not sure if the government are aware, but on the 28th September, headteachers marched onto Downing street protesting the funding cuts that have been made; I’m not sure how £400million could help at all? Headteachers have been begging parents for donations just to cover the costs of textbooks and stationery, more money is needed. Rikama Education donated several Kindle Fires to a local school due to budgetary constraints they were having.
Angela Rayner has tweeted that ‘Schools have been cut by over £2bn since 2015 – today they get less than a fifth back and he tells them to be grateful!’ What does Philip Hammond thinks is more important? Apparently contributing some £1billion funding for a nuclear submarine programme.
Surely the education sector funding needs to be looked at? How can we get Philip Hammond and the current government to pay attention?
