current issues in education 2023 uk

Blog Ofsted: schools and further education & skills (FES)

https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2023/02/01/ofsteds-2023-priorities-for-schools-and-further-education-and-skills/

Ofsted's 2023 priorities for schools and further education and skills

2023 is already shaping up to be another busy year for schools and further education (FE) and skills providers. While none of us can quite predict what might be around the corner, our Annual Report, published at the end of last year, did identify several challenges that will undoubtedly continue into this year.

We reported on the ongoing issues of the pandemic, including around attendance. Specifically, we highlighted the increasing use by schools of part-time timetables. Schools may be using these with the best of intentions but pupils can too easily move out of sight because they’re absent from education for too much time, and too often it is used to try to avoid the legal requirements around excluding a pupil.

We also warned about the number of children in unregistered schools, as well as children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), many of whom continue to struggle with inconsistent levels of support and a lack of joined-up provision.

Alternative provision (AP) was also an area of focus in the report, particularly unregistered AP, which does not have any direct oversight. It is sometimes used as a shadow SEND system, with pupils referred there indefinitely while they wait for a suitable placement at another school. This is unfair to the child and risks disguising the true level of demand for appropriate SEND support.

In the FE and skills sector, we found great variety in learners and providers’ experiences. We found good examples of ambitious curriculums, skilled teachers, and motivated learners. But we also saw:

• restricted or uncoordinated off-the job training
• not enough thought given to learners’ future employment
• poor overall outcomes for colleges teaching learners with severe or multiple disabilities.

Workforce pressures

There is clearly a lot of work to do to make sure that young people have the opportunities they deserve. But our report also highlighted the significant workforce pressures the sector is facing. Many schools and colleges are struggling to recruit and retain teachers, tutors, and other staff.

We also emphasised the importance of high-quality teacher training and development. It is vital that schools can recruit, train, and retain a highly skilled workforce.

Our report also included our reviews of T-levels and skills bootcamps. We found that many providers are delivering high-quality training and education, but some are finding it difficult to properly implement these new programmes. We will therefore be inspecting skills bootcamps from April and will be revisiting T-level providers in 2023.

Perhaps our most reported findings from 2022 were those from our inspections of previously exempt outstanding schools. The exemption was lifted during the pandemic, but we have now been able to inspect 370 formerly exempt schools. We found that 83% were no longer outstanding.

However, this may not be representative of all formerly exempt schools. We prioritised the schools that had gone the longest without inspection, an average of 13 years. And very few had been graded under the education inspection framework (EIF), which raised the bar for outstanding. As a result, they are not typical of all exempt schools, and the pattern of inspection outcomes may change later. We will therefore continue this programme and will inspect all previously exempt outstanding schools by the end of July 2025. We will publish a fuller report on previously exempt schools in the coming months.

Our annual report also provided an overview of inspection judgements. The proportion of state-funded schools judged good or outstanding is now 88%. This marks an increase from 86% in 2021.

It’s important to remember that during the pandemic (2020–21 and into 2022), we inspected with no outcomes data more recent than 2018-2019. However, as part of the Annual Report, we wanted to analyse the relationship between performance data and our judgements during this time. This analysis provided some confidence that there continues to be a relationship between statutory outcomes and inspection judgements. This is because of the clear link between a good quality of education and a school’s outcomes. That said, there is often less of a link for inadequate schools, because these are often judged inadequate for safeguarding rather than for quality of education.

Although improvements have been made, pupils’ attendance remains a priority for schools as we recover from the pandemic. Schools that have secured better attendance are characterised by leaders clearly and consistently communicating their high expectations. These leaders analyse any trends carefully to help them target their actions.

We look forward to continuing our curriculum insight work in 2023 by publishing further research reviews and the first of our subject reports. Our science subject report will be available soon and will paint a picture of the teaching of the subject across England. We hope that the findings and recommendations in these reports contribute further towards the growing pool of subject expertise.

At the end of 2022, we published our new area SEND inspection framework jointly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In January, we began carrying out our first inspections. The new framework aims to promote further improvement in the SEND system by strengthening accountability and focusing on the features we know make local area arrangements most effective in improving the lives of children and young people with SEND. We will share the findings and insights from our inspection evidence with government as plans for SEND reform continue to develop.

Finally, we’re developing training for all inspectors to help them understand some of the complexities that small schools face in delivering a broad, well-sequenced curriculum. This will help them when they’re inspecting small schools.

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The OfS reflects on key issues in higher education in 2023 annual review

The Office for Students (OfS) has published its annual review for 2023, which explores the central issues in English higher education in 2023.

As well as a commentary from the OfS chief executive Susan Lapworth, the review sets out key milestones for the OfS in 2023 and a statistical overview of the sector.

In her commentary, Susan Lapworth sets out continuing challenges and opportunities for the sector in three areas: quality and standards; equality of opportunity; and financial sustainability.

On quality and standards, Susan Lapworth says:

‘At the OfS, we are proud to regulate one of the most respected higher education sectors in the world, where the vast majority of courses continue to be of high quality. This is evidenced through our monitoring of student outcomes data and the results from the National Student Survey (NSS). ‘This year, we have completed our first assessments of the quality of courses at certain higher education providers. The published reports set out the findings of the impartial and rigorous assessments by teams of academic experts. These include details of any concerns identified during the assessments. ‘We are considering whether any regulatory action is appropriate for any of these cases. Meanwhile, we have published the reports to enable all universities and colleges to consider any implications of the findings for the quality of their courses, including those where delivery is subcontracted to other providers, and to make any necessary improvements.'

The commentary details the changes the OfS has made to the way it regulates equality of opportunity, including through the introduction of a new Equality of Opportunity Risk Register. Universities are asked to consider 12 sector-wide risks that may affect a student’s opportunity to access and succeed in higher education as they draw up their access and participation plans. On this issue, Susan Lapworth says:

‘Our work on promoting equality of opportunity is closely linked with our work on quality and standards. We want all students, from all backgrounds, with the ability and desire to undertake higher education, to be supported to access high quality courses and achieve qualifications that are valued by students, employers, and society. ‘Not all students have equal opportunities to progress to an outcome that they consider positively reflects their higher education experience. ‘Our updated regulatory guidance on access and participation plans includes the expectation that providers will look at multiple areas to improve graduate outcomes for disadvantaged groups, some of which are: development of the curriculum; pedagogy; learning resources; student support; employability; and opportunities such as work experience, placements and internships.’

On financial sustainability, the review restates risks identified by the OfS in its most recent update. These included inflationary costs while income from tuition fees for UK undergraduates remains fixed, an overreliance on fees from international students, and continuing challenges in meeting investment needs for facilities and environmental policies. In her commentary Susan Lapworth says:

‘These risks remain present in the operating environment and the pressure on institutions continues. While many universities and colleges are actively working to mitigate future financial risks, others are not fully assessing and managing these, and are having to respond reactively when they start to materialise. We also see an optimism bias in many financial returns: for example, while the projected growth in student numbers at individual providers may seem reasonable, across the higher education sector as a whole in England it may be unrealistic. ‘The risks facing the sector are of course subject to change. We will continue to monitor risks closely and are tailoring our approach to assessing the financial resilience of individual providers to reflect the changes in the overall risk context for the higher education sector. To support this risk-based approach, we have begun new engagement activity, including convening roundtable sessions with finance leaders from across the sector to discuss financial sustainability and the particular risks they are facing. This includes hearing from universities that are not experiencing financial difficulties, and using our engagement activity to set expectations about how universities should be assessing their own financial risks given the pressures they face.’

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Home / Publications & Research / Social Mobility & Vulnerable Learners / EPI Annual Report 2023

EPI Annual Report 2023

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) Annual Report looks at the state of education in England, with a focus on the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

EPI’s 2023 Annual Report compares student attainment in examinations sat in 2022 to the last time examinations took place, in 2019. The report consists of two instalments.

The first, published in October 2023, examined the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers up to the end of secondary school, including pupils eligible for Free School Meals, with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and from different ethnic backgrounds.

The second phase, published in December 2023, builds on this to include students in 16-19 education and those with English as an additional language (EAL), as well as attainment gaps based on gender. This also looks at how the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers varies across regions, local authorities and opportunity areas. 

You can access these phases of the 2023 EPI Annual Report, as well as our Executive Summary, using the links below. 

executive summary

Pre-16 education

annual-report-2023-16-19 education

geographic disadvantage gaps

Below, you can also find links to EPI’s previous reports on the disadvantage gap:

Covid-19 and disadvantage gaps in England 2021

Covid-19 and Disadvantage gaps in England 2020

2020 EPI Annual Report

2019 EPI Annual Report

2018 EPI Annual Report

2016 EPI Annual Report

This report has been kindly funded by the Sequoia Trust and Unbound Philanthropy.   

Unbound Philanthropy is an independent private grantmaking foundation that invests in leaders and organizations in the US and UK working to build a vibrant, welcoming society and just immigration system.  

This publication includes analysis of the National Pupil Database (NPD). The Department for Education is responsible for the collation and management of the NPD and is the Data Controller of NPD data. Any inferences or conclusions derived from the NPD in this publication are the responsibility of the Education Policy Institute and not the Department for Education.  

This work contains statistical data from ONS which is Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates. The analysis was carried out in the Secure Research Service, part of the Office for National Statistics.  

Sam Tuckett

David Robinson

Niccolo Babbini

A programme of:

• Observatory

Five big issues for the education debate in 2023

Society has changed, and the way we teach our children must also change. in recent years, for a variety of reasons including the emergence of new technologies precipitated by the covid-19 pandemic, education has gained prominence in the social debate and is undergoing substantial changes. what will the big issues at the centre of the educational agenda and debate be in this year that is just starting we can hazard a guess..

Artificial intelligence and data science

They beat us at almost every game, identify our faces, tell us where to go, recommend what to listen to, watch and read, diagnose illnesses and now, as well as learning and imitating, they are also capable of creating. The boundaries of artificial intelligence and data science are being pushed a little bit further every day and further than we could have imagined just a few years ago. Almost all sectors have embraced this technology and education could not remain on the sidelines. The potential contributions of AI to education are vast and promising.

In this interview, Carlos Martínez Miguel, global director of IoT (internet of things), big data and artificial intelligence solutions and services at Telefónica Tech explains, among other things, the relationship between artificial intelligence and data analytics, how to avoid the risks involved in the application of this technology and what role it can play in the future of education.

However, and as Wayne Holmes , UNESCO advisor on education and AI, tells us, we must work to improve and enhance teacher qualifications, especially in vulnerable settings.

Teachers’ digital competencies

Integrating technology into education comes with the challenge of training a new professional, a new teacher who knows how to incorporate these technologies into their pedagogical practice in order to promote learning in their students. Transposing outdated pedagogy to digital will not bring about the transformation we need in education. This is because, according to Wendy Kopp , founder and CEO of the international organisation Teach for All, “technology is the easy stuff. What’s difficult is developing ourselves and the teaching profession so that we know how to make the best use of this technology and ensure the children get the most out of it.”

The thing is, as Lùcia Dellagnelo, director of the Brazilian Innovation Centre for Education puts it: “Technology has to emerge to transform pedagogy, to allow the teacher to perform new roles, mediator roles, to support the students’ development and construction of knowledge, instead of being a mere transmitter of content, a conveyor of information to students”.

In this interview , we talk to this education and technology expert about what these connected schools should be like, what the role of teachers should be in this new education and what competencies they need to develop in order to become digital teachers. We also spoke with her and other experts, whom the ProFuturo Observatory brought together at the event “Digital teachers. The assessment of teachers’ digital competencies as a tool to meet the challenges of the classrooms of 2030” , in this post you will learn how to measure and assess these competences in order to guide their professional development: the challenges of assessment, digitally competent schools, cascade training, teacher involvement and motivation… In this post you can read about all these topics in more detail.

Education and technology: the perfect team to fight the divide and inequality

The pandemic showed us the great power of technology to accelerate learning and make it more accessible. For example, it enables differentiated learning tailored to each student’s needs, and ensures that everyone has constant access to learning.

However, we also know that, if not correctly blended, technology does not improve learning and may even widen existing inequalities. How can technology be used to overcome challenges such as the access, quality and equity gaps? What are the main risks and how can we prevent them? How can technology be appropriately incorporated into education systems in vulnerable environments? We talk about all of this in this post about the GEM Report 2023, focusing on the role of technology in education.

Here, Robert Hawkins, global director of education technology and innovation at the World Bank, talked about the five basic principles that every policy-maker should keep in mind when planning public policy in this direction, which can be summarised as: asking why, at what scale and for all, to empower teachers, engage the ecosystem and be data-driven.

Personalisation of learning: the eternal dream of education, made easier with technology

Since Rousseau unwittingly became one of the first theorists of personalised learning in 1762 with his work Emile , this approach has taken a great leap forward thanks to the development of information technologies (ntelligent tutoring systems, free access to numerous learning platforms, methods using computers to adapt the complexity of content to users’ needs)…

At the ProFuturo Observatory we have talked a lot about personalised education. In the post Personalised learning: the great dream of education we tell you what this approach to learning is and how it can be a great tool for education in vulnerable environments.

Once its origins and fundamental elements have been established, in this post we will look at three ways of personalising learning in the classroom: flipped learning, challenge-based learning and place-based learning. If you read it, you will know what each of these methodologies consists of and what their main advantages are.

And, of course, we had to talk about personalised learning and technology. Thus, in Adaptive learning in five questions we talk about some of the keys to this method of instruction which, with the invaluable collaboration of artificial intelligence, can take adaptive learning to another level.

Finally, and to demonstrate that in this Observatory we do not only theorise, in Putting personalised learning into practice we tell you about three interesting experiences that implement flipped learning, challenge-based learning and place-based learning in the classroom. We are referring to the Crab Project, the 2030 Club and the Forest Schools. Don’t miss them.

Critical, safe, secure and responsible digital citizenship

Is knowing how technology works the same as knowing how to use technology? Are our children truly digital natives? How can they develop a positive digital identity? Equipping students with the tools and training to become good digital citizens should be one of the key subjects in the educational debate. But is it? Are we really aware of its importance? Are we teaching digital skills well?

Experts agree that the main problem is not technology, but the way in which the 21st century citizen is being educated. Young people must acquire digital skills and learn to use technology safely, ethically, critically and responsibly. Some studies have shown that while young children (digital natives) are fluent with new technologies, they lack the technical, critical and social skills needed to deal with the dangers they present.

In this article , we have told you what it means to make a critical, safe and responsible use of new technologies and what a teacher should do to encourage and promote it. And in this one , we bring together some practical resources for teaching the little ones to be good digital citizens.

You may also be interested in…

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• Education at a Glance

Education at a Glance 2023

United kingdom, oecd indicators.

Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of accession and partner countries. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as links to much more available on the educational database – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.

The 2023 edition includes a focus on vocational education and training (VET), examining participation in VET and the structure of VET programmes. This edition also includes a new chapter - Ensuring continued learning for Ukrainian refugees - which presents the results of an OECD 2023 survey that collected data on measures taken by OECD countries to integrate Ukrainian refugees into their education systems.

English Also available in: German , French

• Spotlight on Vocational Education and Training
• Education at a Glance 2023 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes
• https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63-en
• Click to access:
• Click to access in HTML WEB
• Click to download PDF - 10.21MB PDF
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This country note provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in the United Kingdom. It draws on data from Education at a Glance 2023. In line with the thematic focus of this year’s Education at a Glance, it emphasises vocational education and training (VET), while also covering other parts of the education system. Data in this note are provided for the latest available year. Readers interested in the reference years for the data are referred to the corresponding tables in Education at a Glance 2023.

• Click to download PDF - 1.27MB PDF

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Author(s) OECD

12 Sept 2023

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• Education and training statistics for the UK

Introduction

This release compiles information on education systems across the United Kingdom. Education is devolved in the UK, so each part of the United Kingdom has a separate education system.

In this release, there are sections focusing on the school system: numbers of schools, pupils and teachers, and pupil to teacher ratios , covering the 2022/23 academic year .

This is followed by sections on further and higher education, which includes the number of providers and the number of students for the 2021/22 academic year. There is also a section on young adults (aged between 16-24) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

The next sections focus on students' qualifications taken in the 2021/22 academic year (although given the different qualifications systems, headline measures and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not suitable to present a direct comparative picture of pupil performance across the UK), as well as the highest qualifications held by adults (aged 19-64) in the UK as of quarter 4 2022.

Finally, there is a section showing government education expenditure in the UK to the 2022-23 financial year .

Headline facts and figures - 2023

Percentage of 16–24-year-olds neets.

In April to June 2023 up 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter.

Not in education, employment or training

Percentage of 19-64-year-olds with NQF level 4 or above

67.0% NQF level 3+ and 83.1% level 2+, Q4 2022

The National Qualifications Framework. Most qualifications have a difficulty level. The higher the level, the more difficult the qualification is.

• Pupil numbers in maintained schools increased in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland between 2021/22 and 2022/23 but decreased in Wales over the same period. Teacher numbers rose in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but decreased in Scotland over the same period.
• Pupil to teacher ratios in 2022/23 remained similar to the previous year suggesting the change in the number of students has been partially offset by the change in the number of teachers.
• Pupil to teacher ratios in maintained schools were lowest in Scotland ( 13.2 ) and similar in Northern Ireland ( 17.4 ), England ( 18.0 ) and Wales ( 18.4 ).
• Further education student numbers increased between 2020/21 and 2021/22. This increase follows several years of decreasing further education student numbers.
• The proportion of young people that are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2023 has increased compared with the previous quarter (January to March 2023) and with pre-COVID-19 levels. The increase is entirely driven by young males, with the female NEET rate remaining stable.

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School numbers

In 2022/23 there were 29,616 maintained schools across the UK, a decrease of 66 schools compared to 2021/22. This is predominantly driven by a decrease early learning and childcare providers in Scotland and in secondary schools in England.

Data on the number of schools in each part of the UK (and each region in England) is available in the underlying data.

Pupil numbers

The number of pupils in maintained schools continued to rise in the UK, with over 10 million pupils in 2022/23, an increase of 65,653 pupils (0.7%) from the previous year. The number of pupils in maintained schools in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland increased by 0.8%, 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. In Wales there was a 0.3% decrease in the number of pupils, an estimated 1,300 pupils.

The number of pupils in state-funded nurseries, secondary schools and special schools increased by 0.2%, 1.6% and 5.4% respectively across the UK between 2021/22 to 2022/23. However the number of pupils in primary schools fell by 0.3% overall.

Data on the number of pupils by sex and school type in each part of the UK (and each region of England) is available in the underlying data along with data by age and school type at a UK level.

Teacher numbers

The overall number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers working in maintained schools continued to increase. In 2022/23 there were 567,309 FTE teachers in total across the UK, an increase of almost 3,500 (0.6%) compared with 2021/22.

The FTE increase across the UK was seen across all phases expect in primary and nursery schools. The largest FTE increase across the UK was seen in secondary schools with 2,916 followed by special schools with 1,323 FTE teachers whereas primary and nursery schools saw a decrease of 1,303 FTE.

The FTE increases were seen in each part of the UK except in Scotland which saw a decrease of just under 100 FTE (0.2%) compared to the previous year. Northern Ireland saw the highest percentage increase of FTE teachers of 2.6% (497 FTE), with Wales at 0.9% (228 FTE) and England at 0.6% (2,845 FTE).

Teachers characteristics - Sex

The teaching workforce across the UK is consistently predominantly female: 74% in 2022/23, the same as in 2021/22. The greatest proportion of female teachers is at nursery level and the share decreases for each successive level of education: across the UK 85% of FTE at primary level are female and 64% at secondary level.

Data on the number of teachers by sex and school type in each part of the UK (and each region of England) is available in the underlying data.

Pupil to teacher ratios (PTRs)

Pupil to teacher ratios (PTRs) show the number of pupils for every teacher. Across the UK, the PTRs follow a similar pattern across all levels of education, with Scotland having the lowest PTRs and England, Wales and Northern Ireland all having very similar PTRs.

In Wales, the decrease in the number of pupils but increase in the number of teachers in 2022/23 across maintained schools has meant that there were fewer pupils per teacher so a decrease in the PTR from the previous year. 

In Northern Ireland, the increase in the number of pupils and larger increase in the number of teachers has meant a decrease in the PTR from the previous year.

In Scotland, the small increase in the number of pupils and small decrease in the number of teachers meant the PTR stayed the same to the previous year.

Whilst the number of pupils increased in England, PTRs remained very similar to the previous year suggesting the increase in the number of pupils has been partially offset by the increase in the number of teachers.

Further and Higher education

2019/20 and 2020/21 data covers the months of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). This may have affected enrolment figures and therefore extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting trends over time.

Further education students

The total number of students in further education (FE) in the UK increased in 2021/22, rising in every part of the UK and by 4.8% overall compared to 2020/21 (136,770 students). However, the increase seen in 2021/22 follows years of decline. Since 2015/16 the total number of FE students across the UK has decreased by nearly 20%. Decreases over this period are seen in each part of the UK except in Scotland where the number of FE students has increased by 21% since 2015/16.

In 2021/22, females accounted for 56% of FE students across the UK. Whilst there were more female FE students than male FE students, males were more likely to participate in FE at a younger age than females were. In 2021/22, 71% of males participating in FE were less than 30 years old. For females this figure was 52%. In addition, there were twice as many females in FE aged 30 and over than there were males.

Higher education students

In 2021/22, there were 2.97 million students in higher education (HE) in UK further education colleges or higher education providers. Nearly two thirds of HE students were studying first degrees (also known as bachelor's degrees), 24% were studying a masters or other postgraduate courses, 4% were undertaking a PhD and 8% were on other undergraduate courses.

More females than males made up the overall student population (57%) and females made up a greater share at every level.

The most popular subject was Business and Management with 18% of all students enrolled (over half a million students), followed by Subjects allied to Medicine (12%) and Social Sciences (10%). Business and Management had the second most equal split between male and female students after Biological and Sport Sciences.

The six subjects with the highest enrolment are presented in the chart below by sex. The numbers of students studying subjects other than those in the top six by enrolment are not presented in the chart below, but the figures are available in the table and in the underlying data as well as by level of study.

The majority of students studied full-time but proportionally more females than males studied part-time (23% vs. 19% respectively across all course levels). This trend is predominantly driven by differences at postgraduate level, where 38% of females (178,825 students) studied postgraduate level courses part-time compared to 30% of males on postgraduate courses (103,065 students). The difference was much smaller at undergraduate level, with 17% of females (207,410 students) studying undergraduate courses part-time compared to 15% of males (139,305 students).

In 2021/22, 23% of all HE students were from overseas (681,600 students). The number of overseas students as a proportion of total students was greater for postgraduate courses (45% of postgraduate students) than for undergraduate courses (14% of undergraduate students). Slightly more overseas students were female than male (51% share or 18,610 females more) and at postgraduate level there were more male overseas students than UK male students (17,160 more overseas male students to male UK students at postgraduate level).

Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)

The percentage of 16–24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2023, in the UK, was estimated at 11.6%. 

This is up 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter and up 0.5 percentage points compared with pre-COVID-19 levels (October to December 2019). The increase is entirely driven by young males whose NEET rate in April to June 2023 was estimated at 12.2%. This is up 1.1 percentage points, both on the previous quarter and compared with pre-COVID-19 levels. In contrast, the NEET rate amongst females remained stable at 11.0%.

Of the estimated 794,000 16–24-year-olds who were NEET, 427,000 (54%) were male and 367,000 (46%) were female. 

The percentage of 16–17-year-olds who were NEET in April to June 2023 was estimated at 3.6% and the percentage of 18–24-year-olds who were NEET in April to June 2023 was estimated at 13.8%, both up 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter.

Qualification headline measures

Qualifications headline measures for the 2021/22 academic year or summer 2022 exam season.

Given the different qualifications systems and headline measures, it is not suitable to present a direct comparison of pupil performance across the UK. 

The summer exam series took place in all parts of the UK in 2022. This was the first time summer exams took place since 2019 after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the UK, to recognise the disruptions faced by students during the pandemic, changes were made to the 2022 summer exams. As a result the headlines measures across the UK have either been significantly affected or not calculated and published for 2021/22. The data that has been published should not be directly compared to attainment data from previous years for the purposes of measuring change in student performance.

• In England, examinations took place with adaptations to recognise the disruption faced by students taking exams in 2022. The adaptations for GCSEs, AS and A levels included the provision of advance information, optional content and support materials in some GCSEs, and changes to coursework requirements in some subjects. The grading approach reflected a midpoint between summer 2019 and 2021. Appropriate adaptations were in place for vocational and technical qualifications, with grades based on outcomes from a range of assessments.
• In Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) put course assessment modifications in place and took a more generous approach to grading. In addition, due to further disruption during the academic year, revision support was provided in the run up to exams that complemented the existing course modifications. Further, the appeals approach in 2022 provided learners with direct access to an appeal where their awarded grade was less than their teacher submitted estimate, and took into account alternative evidence. Following review of that evidence, where SQA assessed that a higher grade had been achieved, then the higher grade was awarded.
• In Wales, a series of adaptations were made to exams, and advance information was provided for some subjects to allow learners to focus their learning and revision. The approach to grading ensured that results broadly reflected a midway point between 2021 and 2019 outcomes.
• In Northern Ireland there was a managed return to public examinations in 2021/22 academic year. There were some adaptations to qualifications awarded by the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), which provides the majority of GCSE, AS and A levels delivered in Northern Ireland schools. These adaptations included the option to omit one unit of assessment from each specification, and was designed to reduce the burden of assessment on students to take account of the disruption they experienced due to COVID.

More detail on how each part of the UK awarded and presented its performance measures can be found at the relevant sources for each part of the UK and each level of education:

Key stage 4 performance, Academic year 2021/22 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

A level and other 16 to 18 results, Academic year 2021/22 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

Schools in Scotland 2022: summary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) (opens in a new tab)

Examination results: September 2021 to August 2022 | GOV.WALES (opens in a new tab)

Year 12 and Year 14 Examination Performance at Post-Primary Schools in Northern Ireland 2021-22 | Department of Education (education-ni.gov.uk) (opens in a new tab)

Highest qualification for adults aged 19-64

Across the UK, an estimated 83.1% of adults aged 19-64 have a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 2 (e.g. GCSE grade 9-4/A*-C, National 5 grade A-C) or above. This decreases to an estimated 67.0% with NQF level 3 (e.g. A Levels, T Levels, Highers) or above and an estimated 48.4% at level 4 (e.g. higher apprenticeship) or above (e.g. higher national diploma, degree apprenticeship, bachelor's, master's, doctorate).

A higher percentage of females than males are qualified to each of these levels.

A higher percentage of 25–29-year-olds are qualified to each of these levels than any other age group, The proportion of adults with these qualifications then decreases as age increases.

Education expenditure

Education expenditure in the united kingdom for the 2022-23 financial year.

Total UK government expenditure on education across the UK increased by 5.1% from financial year 2021-22 to financial year 2022-23. Primary and secondary education saw an increase in spend of 2.2% and 7.1% respectively, while tertiary education saw a 3.6% decrease in spend.

Expenditure on education in real terms decreased by 1.3% from financial year 2021-22 to financial year 2022-23. Expenditure on education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 0.1 percentage points.

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5 key concerns for UK schools in the 22-23 academic year

06 Sep 2022 | ICG News & Announcements

Jill Elston , an ICG member, worked client-side in Academic, Education and ELT publishing for many years before setting up her own agency, Insightful Research.  At the end of the last academic year they consulted their Teacher Panel to ask them what they felt would be their biggest challenge was going to be in the coming academic year 22-3. This is her report of their findings.

“at the end of the last academic year in july, we consulted with the insightful research teacher panel and asked them what they felt their biggest challenge was going to be for the 22-23 academic year., here are the top 5 issues they reported:, 1. funding & budgets.

“Tight budgets mean cutting in every direction from staff to resources, and then considering the cost of living crisis on families and what they can and the stresses this puts on children “ Assistant Headteacher

2. Teacher retention & recruitment

A key theme was dealing with staff shortages, high staff turnover rates and difficulties in recruiting new staff – or even finding supply staff to cover short-term absences. Some also raised the prospect of another winter of staff shortages due to illness if there is another wave of Covid in schools, and others were worried about the impact of potential industrial action if teaching unions should vote to strike.

“Staff shortages due to issues with pay and conditions. Increasingly highly skilled staff are leaving the profession as there is little concern for the well-being and pay for teachers.” Head of Department

3. Covid catch-up

Some are still finding it difficult to help students catch-up with lost learning due to the pandemic. A situation that has not been helped by significant absence levels due to Covid in the last academic year.

“In the last year in my faculty alone we have had over 100 man days of cover from COVID. The biggest challenge for me is moving the department forward whilst managing the issues from COVID such as staff and student absence, there simply isn’t enough time for both!” Head of Maths

4. 2023 Exam series

On a related point, some teachers are concerned about the 2023 exam series. This will be the first year post-Covid that the exams return to ‘normal’ yet the impacts of lost learning and absences are still being felt, whilst teachers feel under pressure to maintain or improve results.

“The return to normality with the 2023 exam series as we’re still finding several gaps in the knowledge of our current year 10 students that we wouldn’t expect in a year group pre-covid.” Head of Science

5. Pupil mental health

Some teachers are concerned about the ongoing impact of increased mental health issues that they can see in their pupils. This is contributing to higher absence levels and poor behaviour in some settings.

“Dealing with the tsunami of mental health issues while trying to ensure that all children achieve their best.” Assistant Principal (Safeguarding Lead)

As well as these macro-trends, there were also numerous other challenges specific to individuals and their schools, such as dealing with a change in leadership, expecting an Ofsted visit in the near future, taking on additional personal responsibilities, developing new curriculum approaches, and changing to academy status.”

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The state of education in 2023 and 2024

In 2023, seismic shifts in UK education and skills set the stage for an exciting year ahead. With 2024 marking the Edge Foundation’s 20th anniversary, and a general election also looming, now is the time to reflect on the sector’s achievements and aspirations for the future.

Skills climbs the political agenda with emerging cross-party consensus

In 2023, leaders of both main political parties sought to prove their credentials when it comes to education and skills – be that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s “silver bullet” to the productivity crisis, or opposition leader Keir Starmer’s catchphrase: “My dad was a toolkmaker”.

Both parties announced a raft of fresh education and skills policies. While differing in flavour, they sought to tackle many of the same concerns and would affect everything from Early Years to Further Education, Higher Education and beyond.

The government announced its intention to address the worrying long-term decline of basic numeracy skills needed for life and work, pledging to extend maths to 18 , for instance, while Labour promised to address this at primary level, through ‘real world’ maths for all.

This ambition is truly welcome – as is the consensus, at long last, that essential (and technical) skills are not for those less ‘academically able’, but required by every young person if they are to thrive in the modern working world..

However, as the general election inches closer, and parties look for more dividing lines, we hope this consensus on education and skills will not be lost. We are also aware that new policy initiatives have a habit of shifting focus and funding from areas where progress is underway. We must navigate with care.

As the main parties shape their election manifestos, we hope they take note of evidence such as the recently released House of Lords 11-16 report , which took on board evidence from our Executive Director and pointed to the need for a truly broad and balanced curriculum offer across secondary education, and that careers guidance must give equal status to the full range of post-16 pathways.

Advanced British Standard (ABS)

The promise of a baccalaureate-style post-16 education – the Advanced British Standard (ABS) – is hugely welcome. A long overdue move to bring ‘academic’, technical and vocational qualifications under one umbrella reflects the parity that has been achieved. It’s a positive sign that the ABS mirrors the Times Education Commission’s flagship policy , which attracted widespread support across education, politics, the arts, science, and business. The days of negative public opinion around ‘non-academic’ pathways are gone. Government policy is catching up.

While the devil will be in the detail, the seeming cross-party consensus is once again encouraging. Should they win power, Labour has pledged to review the curriculum and assessment system, suggesting that a broader, baccalaureate-style qualification of some description could triumph regardless of the election’s outcome. Edge is well-placed to support. Our “Bacc to the Drawing Board” event in May stimulated timely discussion on the nature and objectives of a baccalaureate qualification, and we have new, valuable research to inform policy implementation.

Skills development

In 2023, Edge also saw excellent work being done to bridge the skills gap, from corporate initiatives to education business partnerships . The greatest success stories invariably involve effective employer engagement. In 2023, employers told us they wanted shorter, more flexible courses and greater support around management capabilities, particularly for SMEs. In 2024, businesses of all sizes will therefore require ongoing support to help them to guide and shape the skills offer.

Labour’s proposals to introduce a Growth and Skills Levy are also intriguing, but require careful consideration to avoid recreating the disincentives to apprenticeship uptake built into the existing levy. The party’s promise to establish a Skills England body to oversee the national skills effort would also signify their commitment to streamlining and coordinating different aspects of the complex skills and apprenticeships landscape.

Careers Information, Advice, and Guidance (CIAEG)

Both major parties are making strides to improve Careers Information, Advice, and Guidance (CIAEG). Labour is advocating to bring back mandatory work experience to elevate the quality of opportunities available to young people navigating technical routes.

Work remains, though, in raising awareness, understanding, employer participation and uptake of qualifications like T Levels and lower-level apprenticeships. As we enter 2024, Edge stays focused on ensuring all students are armed to make informed decisions about their future, while keeping a broad spectrum of qualifications available. Diversity, here, is essential.

Assessment and accountability

Although it has been growing as an issue for several years, last year, education stakeholders advocated vociferously for assessment reform. The inaugural Next Generation Assessment Conference saw industry stalwarts exploring issues from multimodal assessment to equity and youth voice in curriculum design. The Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment in Scotland, led by Professor Louise Hayward, also placed reform high on the agenda.

Assessment cannot be decoupled from accountability, of course, which also faces a reckoning. In 2023, Edge, along with the #SaveOurSubjects campaign , handed a letter the Department for Education calling for a review into the impact of EBacc and Progress 8 on the uptake of arts and technology subjects, with a view to reforming Progress 8 and delivering the Arts Premium promised by the 2019 Conservative election manifesto. With Ofsted currently under renewed scrutiny, and Labour exploring plans for a broader report card, Edge will keep the pressure up on this issue in 2024.

Research, youth voice and deeper learning

Last year, Edge’s Skills Shortage Bulletins continued their important role in highlighting key labour market concerns. Collating evidence from numerous high profile organisations, the bulletins explore challenges from youth barriers to employment to growth areas like clean energy and artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, our Learning from the Past series is improving institutional memory through the exploration of past policies, such 14-19 Diplomas and HE access courses. The knowledge base is expanding in 2024.

Edge has also long advocated for the inclusion of Youth Voice in education policy development. Among other Edge-hosted events in 2023, members of our Youth Network featured prominently at the Next Generation Assessment Conference and in a youth voice research round table . Meanwhile, our “ Schools for All?” report looked into young people’s experiences of alienation in secondary school. Youth Voice has also played a more prominent role across the industry, in particular informing government reports and with businesses developing talent pipelines through their work with schools and communities.

Finally, 2023 saw the establishment of the Deeper Learning UK Network . Connecting a broad church of education providers and stakeholder organisations, the network marks a collective commitment to developing, sharing and promoting deeper learning practice across the country. It sets the stage for an education landscape in 2024 that will evolve, adapt to, and uplift the people serves. I have a feeling that a positive year lies ahead!

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We are experimenting with Artificial Intelligence to make our exclusive articles even more accessible while also automating the process for our team of project managers.

In each episode, our thought leaders and sector influencers will delve into the most pressing issues facing the FE.

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Peter DeWitt's

Finding common ground.

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, Peter DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor. Read more from this blog .

11 Critical Issues Facing Educators in 2023

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For several years, I wrote a list of 10, 11, or even 15 critical issues facing education at the end of a year to give a glimpse into issues to consider for the following year. Then COVID happened and blew my last list of issues up. Why? Because it never occurred to me to put a pandemic on the list of critical issues in 2019.

We have educational issues to consider every year that also highlight what teachers, leaders, and students face. Education has often been a dumping ground for criticism of educators who are tasked with teaching children content, feeding them when they come in hungry because they live in poverty or are homeless, and, at the same time, practicing school safety drills because students and teachers have to prepare for fending off the next school shooter.

Television shows and movies poke fun at educators and school, politicians have “plans” about how they can do it better, although the large majority of them ever step foot in a school since they graduated. During all of that “entertainment,” educators are supposed to just go in and do their jobs for the love of education and children.

And that’s exactly what they do.

11 Issues for 2023

These issues were chosen based on the number of times they came up in stories on Education Week or in workshops and coaching sessions that I do in my role as a leadership coach and workshop facilitator.

For full disclosure, some of the issues will be difficult to read, but they are the reality for teachers, leaders, staff, and students around the country. With that being said, the issues on the list are not exhaustive, and as always, if you have an issue to add to the list, find me on social media and let me know which ones are a top priority for you.

Guns – Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that firearms are the leading cause of death for children. This research study cites the CDC report and says there were 45,222 total firearm-related deaths in the United States in 2020, and around 10% of those were children and teens . Just to be intentional, because people will accuse me of a political argument, what this has to do with schools is the fact that the children who are killed or injured are our students. These deaths and this topic have an enormous impact on schools.

Politics in education – In the last couple of years, school leaders and teachers have had to fight rumors about teaching critical race theory, and we know states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Florida have governors or secretaries of education who want to ban conversations around equity, race, and social-emotional learning. Politics have always been a part of education, but the last few years have brought an increased level of it into our classrooms and schools.

Social-emotional learning – Critics believe that social-emotional learning is about indoctrinating students, which is wholly inaccurate. Social-emotional learning is about teaching students about empathy and how to self-regulate their behavior so they can better deal with stress and anxiety. This will continue to be an issue playing out in schools, and we will see work by researchers like Marc Brackett and his team at Yale be at the forefront of this issue.

The Flu – I’m not putting this on the list because I didn’t anticipate COVID in 2019. It’s on the list because, according to the CDC , there are millions of children each year who get the flu. Currently, we know that the respiratory virus RSV has affected millions of children under the age of 5, which does impact preschool- and kindergarten-age children, as well as their siblings or grandparents. Between the flu and RSV, schools will continue to see an increase in student absenteeism. Considering the COVID learning-loss debate that hit schools after COVID, that discourse will only continue. Here’s a recent story written by my Ed Week colleague Evie Blad covering student absences.

De-implementation – This is not as self-serving as it may seem. I say that because I have done a great deal of research on the topic of de-implementation and written a book about it . It’s on the list because it is a topic that school leaders are exploring. No longer should the conversation about workload be one that we push to the side, and de-implementing ineffective practices is a way to make the workload more manageable. Here is a YouTube video with 5 areas to consider when de-implementing.

Substitute teachers – In many states, it is no longer required that substitute teachers have an associate degree. There are states that have lowered the requirement to a high school diploma, yet there is still a shortage of substitute teachers. The lesser standard also brings into question the ability of substitute teachers to cover important core content for students.

Poverty – According to the National Center for Children Living in Poverty, there are 11 million children in that situation. Countless schools around the country are tasked not only with educating students but also feeding them breakfast and lunch as well. During COVID, school leaders, teachers, and staff made bag lunches for these students on a daily basis.

Teacher shortage – My Ed Week colleague Madeline Will recently wrote a story highlighting just how bad the teacher shortage is in the United States . However, this is not just a problem in the United States. Countries around the world are experiencing the same issue. Please check out this article by Ed Week reporter Caitlynn Peetz for the sobering statistics behind this issue.

Teacher-prep programs – Not only should there be conversations about how colleges and universities are preparing our nation’s teachers, but a big issue for 2023 is how those same colleges and universities are recruiting prospective teachers to enter the profession in the first place.

Tutoring programs – With a lot of coverage about COVID learning loss, tutoring as a means of “catching kids up” is going to be a big topic in 2023. Education Week is planning to do a series of articles and provide research on the topic, and I will be moderating a conversation on the topic for A Seat at the Table in 2023.

A love for learning – I know this sounds hokey, but it’s not. There are countless teachers, leaders, and staff trying to inspire a love for learning for themselves and their students. Too often, education is seen as a system of compliance rather than an institution of inspiration and creativity. We need to change that in 2023. Will the political rhetoric allow us to do that?

The opinions expressed in Peter DeWitt’s Finding Common Ground are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Britain's education system is 'failing on every measure' - with 'shocking' regional disparities uncovered

One primary school in Nottinghamshire reported that some children arrived at school unable to say their own names and that 50% of their pupils in reception and nursery were not toilet trained.

News correspondent @RLCotterill

Wednesday 15 June 2022 11:00, UK

Education systems across Britain are "failing on every measure" and 60% of parents don't believe schools prepare pupils for work, according to The Times Education Commission.

The commission said that while the pandemic was a "disaster" for young people, both in terms of their mental health and the widening of the disadvantage gap, the "flaws" predate the pandemic.

The year-long project was chaired by Times columnist Rachel Sylvester and supported by 22 commissioners from a range of fields, as well as two former prime ministers and 13 former education secretaries.

Their report recommended that every child should have access to a laptop or tablet, and that counsellors should be employed in every school.

It also called for teachers to receive more training on how to identify pupils with special educational needs.

Clive Searl, the headteacher at Worthington Primary School in Greater Manchester, agreed with most of the review's recommendations and said it is time for parity of resources between state and private school students.

He said struggling to find electronic devices for students to be able to work from home during lockdown was a problem exclusive to state schools.

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The commission's report also found that there are "shocking" regional disparities when it comes to early years pupils.

Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders and one of the report's commissioners, said the pandemic had left the education sector in a "meltdown".

He added: "The consequences of that are being felt by children of all ages and from all backgrounds, but particularly the most disadvantaged who didn't have the access to the technology and devices that for other children was crucial.

"The problem now is we have to play catch-up while revitalising the education system."

The report recommended an army of undergraduate tutors to help pupils to catch up.

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But Mr Searl said the government already has a National Tutoring Programme that does not work effectively.

"During the pandemic, schools found that tutors were unavailable and didn't show [up] when they were meant to. It was expensive and wasn't really meeting the needs of individual pupils, as we in school know those needs."

Mr Searl said the government should provide extra money for tutors but ministers should not be in charge of the programme.

The commission also raised concerns about the impact of exams on pupils' emotional wellbeing.

Read more: Plans for 14,000 new mainstream and special school places in England as part of levelling up State school in deprived London borough beats Eton for Oxbridge offers

Polling by YouGov found that 65% of parents think the current school system places too much emphasis on exams, and 56% of parents felt this was bad for students' mental health.

Helen Tebbutt's daughter Chloe McLean attends Worthington Primary School and said: "She's in Year 6 so she's just gone through SATs. There are lots of formative assessments.

"Teachers know their children… without having those sitdown formal assessments."

The commission's report called for a "British Baccalaureate" offering a broader range of both academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with a "slimmed-down" set of exams at 16 as opposed to GCSEs.

"Let's stop defining young people ultimately as a grade," Mr Barton said.

"Let's recognise that, of course, academic success is important, but other things are important as well.

"And I think parents looking in on education through COVID will say: 'I want more for my young person, for their mental health, for their wellbeing, but for them to be recognised for the range of skills and talents they've got.'"

The commission also called for an "electives premium" for all schools to fund drama, music, dance and sport, as well as a National Citizenship Service experience for every pupil to ensure that poorer pupils can access outdoor expeditions and volunteering.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We thank the Times Education Commission for its report and always welcome new ideas and views from the sector and education experts.

"Our Schools White Paper sets out a clear roadmap for levelling up education in England, including targeted support both for individual pupils who fall behind and whole areas of the country where standards are weakest, alongside ambitious targets for raising pupil attainment by the end of primary school and GCSEs.

"Our ambitious education recovery programme is already getting children back on track following the pandemic, with the revolutionary National Tutoring Programme providing nearly two million courses of high-quality tuition for the children and young people who need it most, together with additional funding for schools to use to provide further tailored support for pupils."

• Education spending

What is happening to school funding and costs in England?

• Luke Sibieta

Published on 5 October 2023

Schools funding in England is going up faster than economy-wide inflation, but not as fast as the cost pressures schools actually face.

• Education and skills
• Government finances and spending
• Government spending

Teacher strikes and concerns about the safety of school buildings have put school spending at the forefront of public debate. In this short piece, we update our analysis of school spending per pupil in England, and likely future trends given the latest economic forecasts and pay offers. 

Based on standard measures of inflation typically used in analysis of public spending, school spending per pupil is currently on course to be back above 2010 levels by 2024, with increases over this parliament more than enough to reverse the cuts seen up to 2019. However, we see a very different picture when we analyse the actual costs schools are likely to face, with school funding only increasing by just about enough to keep pace with school costs. In the final section of this comment, we consider the implications of this disconnect.

Reversing past cuts to school spending per pupil

Following a substantial rise over the 2000s, total school spending per pupil fell by 8.5% in real terms in England between 2009–10 and 2019–20. This only includes day-to-day or current school spending per pupil, with larger cuts in school capital spending . This fall in school spending per pupil represents the largest and most sustained cut in school spending per pupil in England in at least 40 years, and probably a lot longer. 

The government has set out public spending plans that would deliver large increases in school spending in England, including plans for a £7 billion per year increase in school funding by 2024–25 at the 2021 Spending Review , an extra £2 billion per year in the 2022 Autumn Statement and upwards of £800 million over a full year to cover the costs of a higher teacher pay settlement in schools in England from September 2023. The net result is that the schools budget is expected to increase from £44.4 billion in 2019–20 to £59.6 billion in 2024–25 in cash terms (a total real-terms rise of nearly 15% over five years).

As illustrated in Figure 1, this rise in the schools budget is sufficient to deliver a 13% real-terms rise in school spending per pupil between 2019–20 and 2024–25. If delivered, this would be sufficient to reverse past cuts and take school spending per pupil to 3% more than its previous high-point in 2009–10. 

These figures calculate ‘real-terms’ changes based on economy-wide inflation, as captured by the GDP deflator. This is the standard and most consistent way to examine real-terms changes in public spending. To provide further context, Figure 1 also shows expected real-terms changes in school spending per pupil when we instead use an index of actual costs faced by schools (e.g. expected changes in teacher and other staff pay per head, and rising energy, food and other non-staff costs as captured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)). See the sources at the end of this comment for details on how this is constructed. 

Judged against the likely costs faced by schools, we see a much smaller real-terms rise in school spending per pupil over time (less than 6% between 2019–20 and 2024–25) than when comparing against general inflation (13%). This would leave the purchasing power of school spending per pupil in 2024–25 still about 3% lower than in 2009–10.

As we have previously shown, across long periods of time and in stable economic environments, the GDP deflator tends to provide a close approximation to the costs faced by schools. Schools’ costs and the GDP deflator grew by very similar amounts between 2010–11 and 2019–20. However, we have recently seen a very big spike in inflation, much of which reflects the rising costs of imported energy and food. The GDP deflator does not fully capture import prices as it measures domestic inflation, making it less useful for assessing the cost pressures on public services during such periods. 

Figure 1. Total school spending per pupil (actual spending up to 2021–22, projected to 2024–25), 2009–10 = 1

Note and source: See the end of this comment.

Rising costs faced by schools 

In Figure 2, we unpick what is driving the rise in schools-specific costs. In particular, we show estimated growth in the per-pupil costs of teacher pay (54% of school costs ), other staff pay (28% of school costs), non-staff costs (18% of school costs), total costs and total funding per pupil. The growth in costs is measured by financial years to line up with funding changes, so the changes in teacher pay per head are the weighted average over two academic years. 

During 2020–21 and 2021–22, school funding per pupil (shown by the purple bars) was growing substantially faster than total costs (the yellow bars). This enabled the real-terms growth in spending per pupil we observe in Figure 1, and was made possible by freezes in public sector pay in 2021, relatively low levels of overall inflation during the pandemic, and the fact that schools were fully compensated for increases in teacher pension costs in 2020–21. 

Figure 2. Estimated growth in school costs and funding over time by component 

From 2022–23, we see much faster growth in school costs. Teacher pay per head started to increase faster as an average pay award of 5.4% was implemented from September 2022 (following on from a freeze in September 2021). However, there are even bigger increases in other staff pay per head (8.5%) and in non-staff costs (10%) in 2022–23. The increases in other staff costs reflects large increases in local government pay levels in order to keep pace with increases in the National Living Wage . The increase in non-staff costs reflects the recent spike in inflation, with schools particularly affected by rapid rises in energy and food prices. Like households, schools have received some government relief on energy costs , but will have still faced much higher energy costs than in previous years. As a net result, both total funding and total school costs were growing by just over 6% in 2022–23. This will have left schools just about breaking even, on average, in 2022–23.

For 2023–24, we see continued fast growth in school costs. Average teacher pay per head is expected to grow by 6% per head (reflecting the combination of the 5.4% pay award in September 2022 and the 6.5% award in September 2023). Other staff have been offered a salary rise of £1,925 from April 2023. This is yet to be agreed, but is likely to translate into an average salary rise of about 8%. This partly reflects large increases in the National Living Wage in April 2023 . It could also be argued to be necessary given the tight labour market for school support staff, with competition for staff from retail and hospitality sectors in particular. The Bank of England also currently expects inflation to remain persistently high over the next few years (over 6% in 2023–24), which will drive up non-staff costs for schools. The net result of all these pressures is that we estimate total school costs will grow by 7.2% in 2023–24. As a result of extra funding in the 2022 Autumn Statement and extra funding to cover the higher teacher pay offer from September 2023, we expect school funding to grow by 8% in cash terms in 2023–24. This is clearly a large rise in cash terms, but is only just above the overall growth in costs. The picture in 2023–24 therefore remains tight for schools. 

For 2024–25, we have assumed pay offers of 3% for teachers and school support staff (matching the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations in July 2022 for September 2023 as a default assumption). However, this is clearly a source of uncertainty and awards might end up higher, given the continued difficulties recruiting and retaining school staff, and the persistently high level of inflation. For 2024–25, we expect total funding per pupil to grow by 4.3% and total costs to grow by 3.7%. 

From 2022–23 onwards, then, we see a consistent picture of total school funding per pupil (the purple bars in Figure 2) only just about growing by more than school costs (the yellow bars). This explains why we see school spending per pupil largely stagnate in real terms after 2022–23 when we account for the costs likely to be faced by schools. The blue bars illustrate just how much lower growth in the GDP deflator is expected to be for 2023–24 and 2024–25. This explains why we observe significant real-terms growth in school spending per pupil from 2022–23 when adjusting for economy-wide inflation using the GDP deflator. This illustrates the importance of using the schools-specific inflation measure to assess real-terms funding changes at the present time. 

It is also worth emphasising that these figures represent an estimate of what is happening on average. Within that, there will be significant variation. Some schools will be seeing faster growth in their budgets, and thus able to buy extra resources or staff. However, some schools will be seeing costs grow by more than funding. This will include special schools as they rely more on support staff, who are due to see the biggest pay increases. There will also be variation in when schools feel the pinch most over time. Schools rely more on fixed-price contracts for energy than do households, so will be feeling these significant cost rises at different times.

This is a tighter picture on school funding than we showed in our 2022 annual report on education spending, when we estimated that spending per pupil would be back to 2010 levels even after adjusting for schools-specific costs. This does not reflect the higher teacher pay, which schools were compensated for. Instead, it reflects four main factors. First, we account for estimates of the growing costs of high-need provision (estimated at a total 1.1% by the Department for Education over 2022–23 and 2023–24). Second, support staff pay in 2023–24 is now assumed to grow at 8% instead of 3%. Third, inflation is now forecast to be higher and more persistent, which has increased non-staff costs over 2023–24 and 2024–25. Lastly, actual pupil numbers for January 2023 were about 0.7% higher than most recent forecasts. 

What are the implications of this disconnect? 

There is clearly a very large disconnect in trends over the last few years in school spending per pupil measured in the standard ways (adjusting for inflation using the GDP deflator) and when we adjust for costs faced by schools. Such a large disconnect can occur in individual years, but to observe such a large difference over three years is unusual from a historical perspective. This itself partly reflects the fact that a large part of the increase in inflation is being driven by import prices, which are not fully reflected in the GDP deflator. Revisions to estimates of economic growth might actually make this gap even bigger when the GDP deflator for past years is also revised. What are the implications for policymakers?

First, it is important that policy and debate fully reflect this disconnect. When policymakers claim that school spending per pupil is growing significantly in real terms and reaching a record high , this is likely to jar with schools’ actual experience. Whilst true using normal measures, this is not the picture schools will recognise when they consider the costs they are likely to face. One concrete way policymakers can reflect this situation is by using the CPI instead of the GDP deflator to capture changes in non-staff costs when analysing school costs, particularly in the analysis and evidence they publish for the STRB. At the very least, the Department for Education should be showing scenarios that reflect both measures. The GDP deflator is currently likely to give a poor measure of changes in non-staff costs faced by schools. 

Second, the situation is made worse by the timing of announcements and agreements on salaries. For most recent years, teacher pay salaries have generally been announced in late July, less than six weeks before they are expected to be implemented. Support staff salaries have often been agreed part way through the year in which they are meant to be paid. This has real consequences for schools. It creates huge amounts of uncertainty and concern about what they can afford. It unnecessarily complicates the school funding system by having to create new grants to compensate schools for extra costs (e.g. the Teacher Pay Grant, the Schools Supplementary Grant, the Mainstream Schools Additional Grant and the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant). These late announcements also lead to controversy about whether government is fully funding any additional costs (it usually is, but it rarely gets credit for this). There are also negative consequences for the devolved administrations, which get even later notice about funding increases, with further consequences for schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

This situation can and should be improved. The government should adjust the process for agreeing teacher pay so that final decisions are published in March of each year. The process for agreeing support staff pay also needs to be brought forward significantly, which would require better coordination between central government, local government and relevant trade unions. These agreed figures can then be reflected in government analysis of costs likely to be faced by schools and school funding announcements (usually in July). This would not totally solve the problems as schools may need extra funding to cover any unexpected costs between September (when pay rises kick in) and the next April (when the financial year starts). However, giving schools more notice and making this a standard part of the system would enable better financial planning. As seen this year, there is also the potential for industrial disputes and for sudden economic changes. This may call for late adjustments to salaries or funding, but these should be the exception rather than the norm.

Notes and sources for figures

Figure 1: Cash-terms spending per pupil taken from Drayton et al. (2022) . Cash-terms spending per pupil forecast from 2021–22 based on figures for the core schools budget published in the 2021 Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2022 and figures provided by the Department for Education. General inflation based on HM Treasury, GDP deflators, June 2023 . Schools-specific cost index based on cost assumptions set out in Figure 2. 

Figure 2: Years refer to financial years starting each April. ‘Teacher pay’ figures are based on a weighted average of paybill per head growth of 2.75% in September 2019, 3.1% in September 2020, 0% in September 2021, 5.4% in September 2022, 6.5% in September 2023 and an assumed 3% in September 2024. Assumed pay drift of 0.2% in 2021–22, –0.2% in 2022–23 and zero for all other years. Increase in teacher costs includes the rise in employer pension contributions from September 2019. Pay per head figures do not include the temporary Health and Social Care Levy during 2022–23. Figures taken from or estimated from Department for Education schools’ costs notes: 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2024 and 2022 to 2024 ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note ) and STRB recommendations for 2022 and 2023 ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-review-body-32nd-report-2022 and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-review-body-33rd-report-2023 ). Increases in costs of other staff pay per head taken from DfE schools’ costs notes: 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2024 plus an assumed average pay award of 8.5% in 2022–23 and 8% in 2023–24 (based on proposed pay awards for 2022–23 and 2023–24, https://local.gov.uk/our-support/workforce-and-hr-support/local-government-services/green-book-payscales-and-other-7 and https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/workforce-and-hr-support/local-government-services/green-book-payscales-and-other-16 ), and 3% for 2024–25 to match the assumption for teachers. As per the schools’ costs note, 0.3% added for rising employer pension costs of other staff. Other costs assumed to grow in line with actual CPI inflation up to 2022–23 and Bank of England forecasts for 2023–24 and 2024–25. As assumed in DfE schools’ costs note: 2022 to 2024, we also add additional amounts for the rising costs of special educational needs provision (0.6% in 2022–23 and 0.5% in 2023–24). 

Research Fellow

Luke is a Research Fellow at the IFS and his general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality.

Comment details

Suggested citation.

Sibieta, L. (2023). What is happening to school funding and costs in England? [Comment] Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/what-happening-school-funding-and-costs-england (accessed: 19 August 2024).

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Looking to 2024: the challenges facing the education sector in the year ahead

In this article, Gavin Beart, Divisional Managing Director of Reed's education division, discusses the challenges faced by UK schools in 2024 and how the profession needs to tackle the issues head on in order to make a sharp U-turn and bring education standards in the UK to the level they should be at.

12th Jan, 2024

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At the end of 2023 a report by the House of Commons Library entitled, ‘Teacher recruitment and retention in England’, highlighted some alarming home truths for the education sector.

Overall, the number of teachers in state-funded schools has not kept in line with the number of pupils in those schools. In contrast, postgraduate teacher recruitment was 38% below target for the 2023/24 academic year. Indeed, that target has only been met once since 2015/16, when teacher recruitment was 11% above targeted levels in 2020/21.

Teaching staff recruitment and retention   

Staff recruitment and retention is one of the biggest challenges facing the education sector as we move into 2024. In summer 2023, as official statistics were released by the Department for Education (DfE), the media widely reported that in 2022, 40,000 teachers quit the profession amid a competitive wider labour market. DfE data also showed almost 13% of newly qualified teachers are leaving the profession a year after qualifying and almost 19% after their second year.

These statistics are shocking and need to be addressed before it’s too late and the education of future generations suffers.

But how do we address issues of attraction and retention when it comes to teaching?

Salary has, of course, been a major issue. Throughout the first half of last year, a long-running dispute over pay led to months of strike actions by teachers. Thankfully, this was finally resolved with teachers receiving a 6.5% pay rise from September 2023. This means teacher starting salaries outside London and on the fringe now start at £30,000.

This will clearly be welcomed, but we need to see what the DfE will do to make teaching an attractive profession for graduates to go into. The government will need to spend time, effort, and money to counter issues around teacher’s workloads, stress levels, and the pressures put upon them by Ofsted. A recent report by Education Support showed teachers feel twice as lonely at work compared to the rest of the population (14% versus 7%) and highlighted a breakdown in trust between the teaching profession and Ofsted, with questions raised about the effectiveness of inspections.

While many people outside of teaching might joke about long holidays, they probably don’t realise that teachers spend much of that time working, preparing lesson plans and analysing changes to the curriculum. The government needs to debunk and demystify these issues to present a clear PR campaign that highlights why teaching is such a worthwhile profession.

There needs to be a real push on getting people to come back into the sector after years outside of it, with a well-thought-out campaign and offer, including training, to support people back into teaching. And on top of this, the government needs to look at the mature worker and how they can encourage people to come from industry into teaching – without sacrificing having to train on no salary – people can’t justify training to be a teacher and not earning enough money to make ends meet.

Mental health and wellbeing

The House of Commons report quoted figures from a survey by TALIS, a respected EdTech business with over 30-years' experience of analysing the lives of students, into the workload of teachers. It showed full-time, lower secondary teachers in England reported working an average of 49.3 hours per week, well above the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD) stated average of 41 hours a week.

Primary school teachers were working even longer hours (51.2 per week), according to the report. These figures translated into concerns that teacher’s workloads are unmanageable, with 53% of primary and 57% of lower secondary teachers saying they had too much work.

Staff workload and wellbeing are inextricably linked. The demands put on teachers and their wellbeing need to be dealt with as a single issue.

Questions over salary are probably far from over. Although the September 2023 increase must be welcomed, many teaching leaders still have concerns. Tes magazine, previously known as the Times Educational Supplement, quoted important voices such as Lee Mason-Ellis, the CEO of The Pioneer Academy, and Chair of the headteachers’ roundtable Caroline Derbyshire as saying schools may not be able to afford to implement the 6.5% increase.

But even if we assume the salary question has been tackled, there is still plenty of work to do. The next step is to address those issues around workload – the amount of marking and preparation, the pressures around exams and the issue of SATs. There is already a campaign to say SATs are failing children and should be scrapped. Whatever the answer is, the government needs to reduce the workloads and the stress teachers have to deal with daily if there is going to be any hope of improving recruitment and retention.

The third step should centre on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. The first part of this is acknowledging there is a problem. Once that is done, people can start to properly look for solutions, with the private sector offering many of the answers schools have been seeking. Currently, schools do not have strong benefit offerings, something which has over and again been proven within the private sector to influence the attractiveness of a workplace.

This includes addressing workload pressures in conversations, running support webinars and looking at the benefits offered in the private sector. At the moment, there is a distinct lack of flexibility in the education sector. An Education Endowment Foundation report quoted in the House of Commons report says although some schools are implementing flexible working, including personal days and part-time posts, as well as allowing teachers to complete lesson planning and marking offsite, a survey of 500 state-funded schools in England found only 3% had a flexible working policy published on their website. The DfE needs to find ways to address this and the undercurrent of problems within wellbeing. If it can, then there will be a resulting improvement in retention.

Pupils and educational attainment

Of course, we can’t talk about the challenges facing the education sector in 2024 without addressing student attainment. The coronavirus pandemic put huge pressure on schools, with teachers and pupils pressed into home learning, and the sector still hasn’t fully recovered.

Attainment levels are still below pre-pandemic levels for primary schools, particularly when it comes to core subjects such as Maths and English. Key stage 2 attainment figures for the 2022/23 academic year found that although the number of Year 6 pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths is up from 2022, they remain lower than in 2019.

Then we have the worrying trend of pupil absenteeism , with an overall absence rate of 7.3% in the autumn and spring of 2022/23 and 21.2% of persistent absentees missing more than 10% of classes. Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Speilman, when delivering her final annual report in the role, even warned that the “unwritten agreement” between parents and schools has broken since the pandemic. Essentially, it has become normal for parents to take children out of school and not to worry about doing so.

One scheme which will be vitally important for the sector in terms of countering the ongoing effect of the pandemic is the National Tutoring Programming (NTP). Introduced to provide support to those pupils who were most affected by the disruption caused to their education by Covid, the programme is in its fourth – and last – year. Due to come to an end in July, the NTP has provided vital additional money towards tuition, but there is now a worry that it will simply disappear from the schools budget.

Whether in the form of ongoing tuition or through one-to-one or small groups, there is an ongoing need to address the coronavirus induced attainment deficit. There must be a continued emphasis on improving attainment at primary level.

Part of this comes back to recruitment. There is a workforce within the tuition sector which could prove hugely valuable to schools if it can be tapped into. This, of course, brings us to the thorny issue of funding.

Funding gaps

The National Education Union (NEU) has continually criticised the government with regard to funding. School spending power has been cut since 2010 and is currently 6% below the level it was at when Davd Cameron was elected. In November 2023, the NEU’s General Secretary, Daniel Kebede, said funding levels are “inadequate on all measures” pointing to the crisis with school roofs and floors as a result of the use of reinforced autoclaved aerate concrete as one example.

That said, funding levels have improved – albeit only to the point where they are once again closing in on the levels of 14 years ago. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (TIFS) has found that school spending per pupil is likely to pass 2010 levels this year, with increases over this Parliament set to reverse the cuts which were seen up to 2019.

This comes with an important caveat though. The TIFS report concluded the impact of that additional funding has been dampened by rising levels of inflation and through cost pressures. So, while it is true to say that budgets per pupil are increasing, the costs faced by schools are rising faster resulting in a four per cent reduction in their purchasing power.

Furthermore, there are concerns even this understates the full nature of the financial challenge facing the education sector. That’s because it masks pressures in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and support for disadvantaged children and young people. Addressing this issue requires specific investment and an increase in education, health and care plans (ECHP).

Rather than giving schools access to large amounts of funding, without any control over how it should be spent, there is a need to ring-fence it for SEND provision. That way the training and improvement in training of teaching assistants and specialist support workers can be guaranteed.

There needs to be a targeted recruitment campaign to ensure working in SEND is seen as an attractive proposition. Undoubtedly, it is demanding work, but it is also hugely rewarding, particularly for teachers working one-to-one, and getting results, with students.

The role of technology

If a lot of this makes challenging reading, there is one area which presents the education sector with a host of compelling possibilities – the increasing prevalence of technology and artificial intelligence (AI). The Oak National Academy Scheme was set up during the pandemic, with the express purpose of exploring this arena. It is now creating full lesson plans using AI.

This development has two major benefits. Firstly, such technological development will ease teacher’s workload, making the process of producing lessons plans faster and more efficient. Artificial intelligence can map out what resources they require, plan complex lessons, and even create whole curriculums.

The second benefit comes in terms of the advantages of AI for students. Not only can AI present students with a strong knowledge base, but it has uses in terms of understanding how a subject works and how it can be researched. AI can be used to make sure students are ready for exams and to do coursework. Clearly, this comes with a big caveat around the risk of cheating, but such potential negatives should not be allowed to prevent progress. The education sector needs to embrace AI, understanding its positive benefits rather than dwelling on the negatives.

In time, it will be possible for teachers to deliver lessons to 15 schools at the same time. This is something which is already happening in China. In areas where there are shortages of teachers or funding, AI can also be used through online learning. These developments should not scare people but be seen as solutions to the funding and resource issues outlined in this article.

As we have seen, the education sector faces another year of extreme challenges. There are vital decisions to be made which will have huge impacts of staff morale and ultimately on recruitment and retention levels.

There are solutions available if the government of the day can embrace them – which brings us to perhaps the most important decision of 2024, one made collectively by the people of Great Britain. We are – barring the unlikely event of a January 2025 poll – in a general election year. It will be fascinating to see the manifestos of the government and the main opposition parties as they publish them ahead of the election.

Those in the teaching profession will hope that whoever is in power by the end of 2024, they will be able to grasp the nettle of funding, resources and wellbeing to bring educational standards back to where they need to be.

If you are looking to hire teaching staff, get in touch with our specialist education recruiters today .

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Challenges in education facing the new Prime Minister

09 Aug 2022

What position will an incoming prime minister inherit?  

The education system is struggling to recover from Covid and the significant impact on children’s learning resulting from school closures and pupil/teacher absences. Recent results from National Curriculum Tests at the end of primary school show that only 59% reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2021/2022, compared to 65% in 2018/19. Progress has been particularly slow for young children who are learning to read and those from disadvantaged backgrounds – the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has widened .  

Debate has focused on whether the government is doing enough to support children’s learning recovery, as well as their mental health .   

There is also a looming teacher supply crisis and uncertainty over whether the government’s recent 5% pay increase for experienced teachers in 22/23 will be sufficient to retain them in the profession. There was a temporary increase in applications to teacher training during the pandemic (as other career options were more limited) but numbers applying this year are forecast to be significantly below target . High teacher vacancy rates put pressure on teachers and leaders and threaten the quality of education.  

Underpinning both of these issues is the question of school funding . The schools’ budget is increasing from £49.8 billion to £53.8 billion between 2021/22 and 2022/23, but per pupil school funding will still be lower in real terms than it was in 2009/2010. In recent years increases in core school funding have also been focused towards more advantaged schools, making the challenges facing disadvantaged schools even greater. While 16-18 funding has seen a big recent increase , this follows a long period of lower funding increases per student than both compulsory and higher education.   

Following a Schools White Paper in March, legislation is now making its way through Parliament. The policy measures are designed to achieve some ambitious objectives – to increase the percentage of children achieving expected standards at primary school to 90% and the average grade at GCSE to 5, by 2030. But there are questions over whether there is enough funding available to achieve these objectives and much debate over the appropriate structure of the school system.  

Post-16 education is in a state of transition, as new technical qualifications are introduced (T-Levels) and with a new Skills and Post-16 Education Act recently enacted focusing on improving skills provision, particularly at the local-level. The future qualifications landscape will be particularly important for students from lower income backgrounds as they rely more heavily on non-academic routes to progress .  

Immediate and long-term issues 

The government’s decision to increase teacher pay by 5% (rather than the 3% it originally proposed in the spring) may go some way to addressing concerns about teacher supply. However, simply increasing teacher pay without additional funding risks putting pressure on school budgets, which are already contending with high energy prices and other inflationary pressures.    

The central plank of the government’s recovery strategy is the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) , which aims to help children most affected by the pandemic to catch up with their learning using small group tuition. It has experienced a number of challenges over the last year. The government has appointed new suppliers to deliver the programme next year and will need to consider how best to extend the reach of the NTP and build the evidence base on how best to maximise its effectiveness.   

The Schools Bill has seen extensive amendments since it started making its way through Parliament. A myriad of issues still need to be resolved, including the appropriate governance and regulatory structures within which our schools will operate in future. Plans to move all schools into larger groups by 2030 (‘strong’ multi academy trusts) are likely to remain contentious . And with the primary school population expected to decline by almost a fifth by 2032, this will undoubtably create additional system-level challenges to overcome.   

The recent Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Green Paper highlighted how the current school system is failing to deliver for some of the most vulnerable pupils. The government will need to tackle long-standing challenges to ensure these pupils have access to appropriate support and opportunities.  

Whilst the government is making a number of changes to the post-16 landscape and increasing the role of employers in articulating their needs, there is a longer term question over the skill needs of the future. The world of work is changing – driven by climate change, technology, automation and demographics. Young people are likely to need different skills in future to succeed and the government needs to consider how the education system can support them to acquire these skills.  

Implications of potential policy choices  

Public funds are always stretched and the government has a cost of living crisis to manage. However, if there is insufficient investment in education we will see the impacts for decades to come in terms of a lower skilled and less productive workforce and lower economic growth .   

The level of school and college funding, teacher pay and the scale of recovery initiatives have the potential to either weaken our education system and growth prospects, or enable them to flourish.  

By Carole Willis , Chief Executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). This piece was originally part of the report ‘The Conservative leadership contest: a guide to the policy landscape’  with  Full Fact .

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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The mental health crisis in British schools

Rosalind Hollis Professor of Education for Social Justice, University of Hull

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Jonathan Glazzard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Hull provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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NHS statistics suggest that 20.3% – one in five – children and young people aged from eight to 16 years in England had a probable mental disorder in 2023. This a huge rise from 2017, when 12.5% had a probable mental health disorder.

Data from social mobility charity The Sutton Trust shows that the prevalence of mental ill-health is higher for girls than boys. Girls are more likely to experience psychological distress and self-harm and are at greater likelihood of attempting suicide.

And research from charity Just Like Us highlights that young people who are LGBTQ+ are more likely to develop mental ill health. The risk is even greater for Black LGBTQ+ young people, 89% of whom have contemplated suicide.

According to a recently released report from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Youth Mental Health , there is substantial evidence across the world that youth mental health has substantially deteriorated. Key factors outlined by the report include social media, concerns about climate change, food, housing and employment insecurity and intergenerational poverty.

This decline in youth mental health puts severe strain on schools, which play a central role in identifying mental health issues in children, providing help and offering advice to families.

Under pressure

The 2023 annual report from education regulator Ofsted highlights some of the key challenges schools are facing.

Schools are using part-time timetables for children who are absent from school due to their mental health and are waiting for a clinical assessment. Many children are experiencing delays in accessing specialist mental health services. Children are not getting help in a timely way and the severity of needs that schools are dealing with is increasing.

Children with social, emotional and mental health needs form one of the most common categories of special educational needs and disabilities. Too many children are in educational environments which do not meet their needs .

The previous UK government attempted to support schools by funding education mental health practitioners in schools. These practitioners are employed by the NHS and work in schools to help children manage common mental health problems.

Dedicated support like this is hugely important. But, according to research body the Education Policy Institute , only a third of schools are currently benefitting from this service. And research suggests that the kind of support offered may not be right for some young people.

All children who need access to an education mental health practitioner deserve to benefit from this service. It is not acceptable for mental health support to become a postcode lottery.

What children need

The Labour government outlined plans in its manifesto before the general election to use some of the funds raised by removing the VAT exemption for private schools to ensure that every school has access to specialist mental health support.

This will require expanding the number of training providers which train these practitioners, as well as committing additional funding to support those who wish to train.

Urgent investment in the child and adolescent mental health service is also required to reduce waiting times. Schools cannot be expected to compensate for the shortage of mental health services. Teachers must be able to rely on the support from external professionals if they are to focus on their core responsibilities in the classroom.

The government’s curriculum and assessment review must consider how the school curriculum and assessment system can be better designed to support children’s mental health. Evidence shows that exams cause children to access counselling due to stress .

This review offers an opportunity to think differently and more creatively about how schools might conduct assessment. There are alternatives to the high-stakes examinations which cause so much anxiety.

In her letter to the education workforce in July, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, acknowledged the challenges that teachers were facing in relation to mental health and special educational needs services. She has pledged to focus on early years education and to rebuild the relationship between government and the education sector.

While this is welcome, the magnitude of the task at hand should not be underestimated. Schools cannot solve all the problems.

Broader problems

The government has announced it will introduce a children’s wellbeing bill . This is intended to ensure that children are safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly. However, it is vital that these initiatives lead to real tangible change for children and young people.

The Labour manifesto also promised to introduce open access mental health services in every community. This would certainly be a welcome step.

Investment in developing community mental health hubs to support young people’s mental health through non-appointment “drop-in” services is urgently required. Developing hubs to support families should also be a policy priority. Support hubs could help parents better manage their own mental health and to understand the importance of positive adult-child interactions.

Systemic issues such as climate change and poverty also need urgent attention because these are often the causes of poor mental health, as highlighted in the Lancet report on youth mental health.

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Admission appeals in England: academic year 2023 to 2024

The number, rate and result of appeals submitted in relation to starting at a new school at the start of the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

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W.H.O. Declares Global Emergency Over New Mpox Outbreak

The epidemic is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the virus has now appeared in a dozen other African countries.

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By Apoorva Mandavilli

The rapid spread of mpox, formerly called monkeypox, in African countries constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization declared on Wednesday.

This is the second time in three years that the W.H.O. has designated an mpox epidemic as a global emergency. It previously did so in July 2022. That outbreak went on to affect nearly 100,000 people , primarily gay and bisexual men, in 116 countries, and killed about 200 people.

The threat this time is deadlier. Since the beginning of this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone has reported 15,600 mpox cases and 537 deaths. Those most at risk include women and children under 15.

“The detection and rapid spread of a new clade of mpox in eastern D.R.C., its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general.

The outbreak has spread through 13 countries in Africa, including a few that had never reported mpox cases before. On Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a “public health emergency of continental security,” the first time the organization has taken that step since the African Union granted it the power to do so last year.

“It’s in the interests of the countries, of the continent and of the world to get our arms around this and stop transmission as soon as we can,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, the executive director for preparedness and response at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a nonprofit that finances vaccine development.

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