Headteachers could reduce their schools’ working week, refuse to submit their budgets or run on deficits in response to the government’s “tsunami” of education spending cuts.
At their annual conference earlier this month, members of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) voted overwhelmingly to consider “all options” in defiance of the real-terms cut in spending on education.
School leaders at the event in Telford voiced their anger that ministers have not been listening to their concerns and instead continue to claim – “like a recorded message” – that spending on education was at record levels.
But the challenges facing schools is clear. A National Audit Office (NAO) report earlier this year warned that schools are facing real-terms budget cuts of £3 billion by 2020 because government spending, while rising, is not keeping pace with rising pupil numbers or with hikes in the National Insurance and pensions contributions that schools have to make.
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