26 January 2012
Commenting on the call from the Welsh Liberal Democrats for the comparable school expenditure statistics between England and Wales to be made available, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union in Wales and the UK, said:
“The NASUWT welcomes the call for these important statistics to be made available.
“Parents and the public are entitled to see these comparisons.
“The NASUWT refutes the Welsh Government's claim that changes in education policy in England mean it is not possible to produce comparable figures of budgeted expenditure per pupil for England and Wales for this financial year.
“Although there have been changes to the system, there is a standard funding formula and the overwhelming majority of schools remain linked to the local authorities.
“It is therefore a fairly simple matter to make an allowance for the policy changes introduced in England in order to produce the comparisons.”
Rex Phillips, NASUWT Wales Organiser, said:
“The Education Minister was quite happy to publish the results of the flawed school banding system but it appears the statistics on the per-pupil funding gap will be buried this year.
“In a system that should be publicly accountable it's not acceptable for ministers to publish only information which suits them.”