The Welsh government must evaluate the true cost of an adequately resourced education system and commit to funding it in full, delegates said at the Annual Conference of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, or risk failing a generation of teachers and learners.

NASUWT Cymru grows increasingly concerned that pressures imposed on the education system, by the government, vastly outweigh the benefits gained under the current funding model. Curriculum changes, reforms for Additional Learning Needs, shifting pupil demographics and an increase in staff redundancies have all forced more responsibilities on to teachers without the required funding or resources to support the work.

·       Teachers’ pay is 20% lower in real terms than it was in 2010, leading to increasing problems with recruitment and retention;
·       68.7% of primary school teachers and 54.3% of secondary school teachers are concerned about budget cuts – more than any other nation in the UK;
·       76.9% of teachers in Wales feel disempowered by constant changes – more than any other nation in the UK;
·       An estimated £500 million is lost every year to the ‘Middle Tier’ – education-adjacent public bodies like Estyn (£15 million) and Qualifications Wales (£10 million) – but there is little evidence to justify this gargantuan bill when the services rendered are often found wanting and not designed to make a profit.

Matt Wrack, General Secretary of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:

“When it comes to government funding, teachers and pupils in Wales are being short changed. Last year, Westminster allocated £399 million to Wales to fund public services, but only £39 million – that’s 10% – actually made its way to into schools’ core budgets. Education in Wales may as well be on life support.

“When a system is underfunded for so long, governments can forget what good looks like. But schools have not forgotten what success means for their pupils, and every day, they try desperately to do more with less. If the Senedd is serious about improving education in Wales, they need to take it as seriously as teachers do. That means realistic levels of funding, applied consistently across local authorities, and nothing less than full pay restoration for teachers.”

Neil Butler, National Official for Wales, said:

“I am deeply worried about the state of education funding in Wales. Schools’ financial reserves have dropped significantly in the last year, and even schools with high reserves are making teachers and staff redundant. Meanwhile, millions of pounds is disappearing into bodies like Estyn and Qualifications Wales with little accounting for what that money actually buys.

“Local authorities, who are responsible for their schools’ budgets, apply wildly different funding formulae. The result is that a pupil in one area of Wales can receive almost a thousand pounds a year more in funding than one in another area, regardless of any subsidies received for deprivation or additional learning needs. We cannot have equality of opportunity for our pupils without an equitable funding model across the country.

“The only way to fix education funding in Wales is to start at the beginning and gather a full set of data to assess funding concerns. You’ve got to understand a problem if you want to properly budget for the solution, and it is clear that the government and local authorities have limited understanding of the funding pressures faced by teachers and schools.

“With Senedd elections approaching, NASUWT Cymru calls on all parties to set out their vision for a world-class education system. This is about long term investment and true ambition for Wales. We want to know how education will be funded, how it will be resourced, and how – and when – improvement will be delivered. Teachers and learners deserve nothing less.”