EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE SLIPPING - Letter (21/02/05)

According to the Audit Commission, Somerset Education Authority has slipped from ‘excellent’ to merely ‘good’. This shouldn’t distract from the first rate job our teachers are doing but it does point out and so teach us a valuable lesson as to which direction the Education Authority is going; and although ‘Good’ is obviously better than average, it is important to note how Somerset’s education authority compares to our neighbouring councils in recent years.

I agree that funding for local councils needs to be fairer and the Government should give the West Country more of our tax payers money back and so bring us closer to the national average, but that isn’t the whole picture.

In Devon their spending per pupil is on a par with ours. Yet at every stage over the last six years, their pupils have delivered bigger improvements in maths, English and science than ours have done. If you then look at Dorset, where children have even less spending per head than Somerset’s, their pupils have achieved even bigger improvements than ours and Devon’s and also got better GCSE results than here in Somerset.

The children in all three counties obviously share similar attributes and abilities. The only variable is the political direction of the Education Authorities and the way this impacts on schools and their pupils. Surely, schooling is not just about how much money is spent per pupil but how that money is spent and how much of it actually gets into the classroom to let the teachers teach.

Stephen R Fielding
Redlake Drive
Taunton