Shepton Mallet’s Schools can breath a sigh of relief (for now)

In 'across the board' cuts announced today, the Coalition have issued more details of where the £1bn reduction in the overall Education budget will be taken from.  

A document has been issued outlining the impact of some of the the cuts on a large number of projects that are planned or are underway, with the Government canceling much of the School re-building program.  Shepton Mallet’s Schools are not listed (as there are no linked projects underway) and this could, initially at least, be taken as a good sign.

However, in addition to some ‘as yet unspecified’ cuts, a large chunk of the funding which is being removed from the Education ‘pot’, is unallocated, i.e. not linked to specific projects at this time.  It is this change which may have the wider impact on education and may be where our local schools bear the brunt of the cuts.  The Government’s take on this is that the money could be saved through “better financial management and tighter controls”.  Teachers who feel they are working with resources stretched to the limit already, may disagree.

Are you in a teacher or other worker in one of our local Schools?  Share your views on how you think this may turn out.  Are the Government correct in assuming that there is significant waste, and could improvements in the way money is handled and spent save the day? OR, is this the start of a damaging campaign of short-sighted erosion to our public services, such as we have seen in the past? 

Share your thoughts.