Shropshire Star comment: Cash must be given to education

As the Age of Austerity continues to bite while the Government brings down a level of national debt that remains too high, there is a price to be paid.

The NHS has been on the frontline recently and the shortages facing staff and patients have been chronicled at length.

As attention has been diverted to health and other sectors, including defence, schools seem to have flown under the radar. Collective concern at an inability to keep pace with changes in demand has not made the headlines.

That may change, however, as new Government figures show that class sizes in England’s secondary schools are rising. And while that issue might not affect many youngsters who attend rural schools in Shropshire and Mid Wales, it will affect those in areas such as Telford, or the Black Country and Birmingham.

Rising class sizes can lead to reduced opportunity in our schools and it is a concern to all if children no longer enjoy the same opportunities that once existed.

Former PM Tony Blair once declared his top three priorities as ‘education, education and education’ and it would be a foolish Government that took its eye off the ball.

Though Brexit, the NHS, railways, our relations with other trading nations and security in an uncertain world of Russian aggression and terror threats are frequently towards the top of the national agenda, education must not lose out.

It is imperative that the Government does not backtrack on promises that have been made. It is equally vital that it does not allow progress already made to be eroded through a lack of funding.

Education leaders are able to plan long in advance to ensure our children are adequately catered for in secondary schools. Information from local authorities helps them to know where demand for school places will go up or down and there is a requirement that plans are put in place.

An education system that gradually slides and falls behind is not in anyone’s interest. And so the Government must look at the figures as a matter of urgency and ensure that they adequately fund schools and do not allow class sizes to increase.

Education is our future. We must invest in the children of today in order to be prosperous tomorrow.