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CEO's blog: 'Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing'
Last week, Sir Kevan Collins, the highly respected Education Recovery Commissioner, resigned following the failure of the government to implement most of his recommendations on how schools can ‘catch up’ over the next few years. Sir Kevan’s very public resignation raises many questions and the key question is how much do the government value our children?
Sir Kevan’s report recommended spending around £15 billion to support catch up, while the government has actually committed £1.5 billion. Both figures are huge sums, but to put an individual perspective on this, £1.5 billion works out at £50 per pupil, meaning that what Sir Kevan asked for was £500 per pupil.
The school system in the USA gets a lot of criticism for a lack of investment, but President Biden has committed an extra £1,500 per pupil for Covid-19 catch-up, while the Dutch government has allocated £2,000 per pupil. All of this makes our Government’s investment seem poor by comparison, especially where it has managed to spend £37 billion over the last two years on the Test and Trace system, which a recent House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Report described as having an “absurd cost and failures”.
As I’ve said previously, I don’t take a party political view and I have some sympathy for those in Government making difficult decisions. However, I will speak out against injustice and when it comes to investment in education, it does seem that those controlling the funding, in the words of Oscar Wilde, “know the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
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The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that our Trust logo has had a mini makeover - this is to celebrate the start of the 2021 Pride season, but is also in anticipation of School Diversity Week.
Did you miss out on free delivery on your uniform order in May? Good news, the offer has been extended for the whole of June!
