Isle of Wight Labour’s parliamentary spokesperson, Julian Critchley, shares this latest news. Ed
The Isle of Wight Labour Party have expressed deep concern about figures which show that Isle of Wight secondary schools have lost more staff than almost anywhere else in the country.
Figures produced by the National Education Union show that the Isle of Wight is the third worst local authority in the country for staff cuts in secondary schools, losing on average 16.6 staff members per secondary school. Only Middlesbrough and Reading have lost more.
Most of the losses appear to involve teaching assistants, although some teaching posts have also been cut.
Growing class sizes
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools are now less able to give individual support to children, and are seeing class sizes grow.
Island Labour’s Parliamentary Spokesperson, Julian Critchley, said:
“Obviously these figures are a cause for concern. The position is complicated by the fact that the Government’s stealth privatisation of the schools system to Multi-Academy Trusts like AET (which runs Sandown Bay and Ryde Academies) removes accountability to local communities.
“These cuts are the result of decisions taken by private companies like AET, and executives like Julian Drinkall, their CEO, who only last month claimed Islanders were ‘nimbies’ for protesting at AET’s plans to shut Sandown Bay Academy.”
Underfunding vital public services
He finished by saying,
“Nevertheless, the root cause of the losses is the Government’s continuing policy of deliberately underfunding vital public services. We are now in a position where schools are facing the first real-terms budget cuts for 20 years.
“I support the local council in their plan to take back control of Sandown Bay from AET and reopen it as a local authority school. Perhaps, in the light of these figures, they can work on reclaiming the rest of our schools, and give a guarantee that staffing levels will be restored at all local authority schools on the Island.”
