Schoolboy errors

Posted in: In-depth comment

4:01 am, 17 April 2009 | Judy Hirst

This, we are told, is going to be an austerity Budget. The chancellor will be forced to row back from even the bleak forecasts set out in the Pre-Budget Report. Record levels of national debt mean tough choices ahead.

If the Institute for Fiscal Studies is right, the options are tax rises or swingeing spending cuts, or both. So, in this drab era of rationing and lengthening queues, who will be lucky enough to get a few crumbs from the Treasury table?

Housing and the moribund jobs market are obvious targets for a focused fiscal boost on April 22. But another especially deserving cause is further education. Not only because young people are being disproportionately thrown on to the dole, and would benefit from extended education and training. Nor just because social mobility has gone into decline.

Alistair Darling must find extra funding for 16 to 19-year-olds because the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and the soon to be defunct Learning and Skills Council, have made an almighty hash of this critical area.

A series of catastrophic errors has thrown colleges and schools into disarray. The collapse of the flagship Building Colleges for the Future programme has left 144 colleges in building site limbo, due to a £5.7bn funding shortfall.

Former Audit Commission controller Sir Andrew Foster has condemned ‘the absence of a proper long-term financial strategy’ and strongly criticised both Dius and the LSC for the fiasco.

Meanwhile, the LSC has bungled funding allocations for 16 to 19-year-olds, leading to potential cuts of £200m in 2009/10. An estimated 35,000 pupils could be left without sixth-form places, and teachers are threatening strike action.

Frantic cross-departmental discussions are taking place to resolve the immediate funding crisis, and schools minister Jim Knight has hinted at an announcement in the Budget.

But the lessons go way beyond just one sector. The LSC’s inability to estimate pupil numbers – and Dius’s failure to notice – has already found disturbing echoes in primary schools.

In the new age of austerity, basic competence – and numeracy – will be at a premium in all departments and agencies. Operational Efficiency Programme, please note.

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