17 October 2003
The government has rejected independent research commissioned by the National Union of Teachers suggesting that this year's schools' funding crisis has resulted in the loss of almost 9,000 teaching posts.
The Department for Education and Skills accused the NUT of being out of touch with reality after it published a study on October 14 by Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson of Liverpool University.
This concluded that, following the funding settlement for 2003/04, cash-strapped schools had made 2,000 teachers redundant: 1,240 in primaries and 760 in secondaries.
A further 3,320 teaching posts were lost by not renewing fixed-term contracts, while 3,480 went through natural wastage.
The survey, which was 'scaled up' from a sample of 980 primary schools and 368 secondaries, also reported that 12,300 non-teaching posts, the vast majority teaching assistants, had been scrapped.
A DfES spokeswoman derided the results. 'The NUT appears to have lost touch with reality. The scale of these figures, again based on a very small sample, does not remotely tally with assessments we have seen from other teacher unions,' she said.
'We are working very closely in partnership with head teacher representatives and local government to ensure that these problems are not repeated.'
But NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said the survey painted a 'frightening picture' of the damage being done to children's education.
'The chancellor increased funding,' he said. 'Charles Clarke failed to ensure it was enough to cover the additional costs placed on schools. The government has the money to rectify that mistake but instead it sits on its hands and allows our children's education to suffer.'
PFoct2003
