Under-fives, 16 to 19-year-olds and building programmes will suffer as spending is slashed by 14.4% over next four years
Education spending is being slashed by more than 14% ? the largest cut since the 1950s, Britain's leading tax and spending experts have warned.
Researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a highly respected thinktank, have calculated that public spending on UK education will fall by 14.4% between 2010-11 and 2014-15.
They said this represented the largest cut in education spending over any four-year period since at least the 1950s.
Their study ? Trends in Education and Schools Spending ? found school and college building projects will suffer the most from cuts to funding. The budgets for these projects will be more than halved.
Universities will fare the next worst with a 40% cut, although this will be offset by higher tuition fees of up to �9,000. The education of 16 to 19-year-olds and the under-fives will each suffer a 20% funding fall in real terms, the study found.
The majority of schools will see a real-term budget reduction over the next four years, the researchers said, although those with the most deprived pupils will see a real-term increase in state funds.
The IFS study found that, since the late 1990s, education spending had risen "substantially". While Labour was in power, public spending on education moved from universities towards schools, the under-fives and further education, the study shows. The number of teachers grew by 12% while the number of teaching assistants more than tripled.
Luke Sibieta, senior research economist at the IFS and co-author of the study, said the UK's education budget was set for a "historically large fall over the next few years".
"The biggest challenges lie ahead for the early years, youth services and 16-19 education, where spending is set to fall by around 20% in real terms," he said. "The key question is what these cuts in financial resources will mean for the outputs of the education system, such as young people's exam results or earnings potential."
But a spokesman for the Department for Education said the government was increasing the budget for schools and said that funds for building works were now higher than they were on average between 1997-98 and 2004-05.
He said the schools budget was increasing by �3.6bn over the next four years and the pupil premium ? the �488 given to schools for each pupil eligible for free school meals ? would rise over the next three years.
On the provision of free early learning, he said: "We've increased the free entitlement to 15 hours per week for all three and four-year-olds from last September ? and are now extending this to all disadvantaged two-year olds."
He said government was "right to look at the amount of money spent on school buildings. An independent review showed taxpayers money was being wasted on red tape and consultants, not on building schools. Our new plans will build schools cheaper and quicker than before."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/24/education-cut-deepest-since-1950s
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