Exclusive: Research finds more than 1,000 schools have suffered cumulative real-terms cuts in excess of £1m each
School leaders in England are having to double up as caretakers and lollipop men and women as funding “hits rock bottom”, teaching unions have said.
Others are having to call on relatives to help fix crumbling buildings and do other odd jobs after years of “inadequate” funding for schools, they said.
Seven in 10 schools are struggling with real-terms cuts to their budgets since 2010 – 1,200 more than last year – according to the Stop School Cuts coalition, which has been monitoring school funding levels for almost a decade.
Research by the coalition, which is made up of three education unions, school governors and a parents’ charity, found more than 1,000 schools had suffered cumulative real-terms cuts in excess of £1m each, with Essex, Birmingham and Kent among the hardest hit areas.
