Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to provide every region in the country with funding for a specialist 16-19 maths school, as well as an extra £120 million a year to boost PE and the arts in schools.
The Budget says £7 million will be available to open 11 specialist maths schools around the country.
It also confirms that secondary schools will receive an average of £25,000 per year to invest in arts activities, while £30 million a year will go towards improving PE teaching in schools across the country.
Plans to give schools extra cash for PE and the arts were first pledged in the Conservative manifesto before being confirmed today.
Today’s Budget says there will be ”£29 million per year by 2023-24 to support primary school PE teaching and help schools make the best use of their sports facilities, as well as £90 million per year to introduce an Arts Premium from September 2021 to help schools provide high-quality arts programmes and extracurricular activities for pupils”.
Mr Sunak also announced measures to help the “gig economy” during the coronavirus outbreak, which could potentially benefit supply teachers who are self-isolating or unable to work owing to the coronavirus.
People would be able to claim benefits from day one rather than day eight, he said.
The chancellor also announced the abolition of tax on books from December this year. He said: “The greatest responsibility is the education of our young people and nothing could be more fundamental to that than reading.”
Schools will receive an unspecified share of a £640 billion pot for capital funding by 2024-25, the Budget states.
Mr Sunak also referred to the £7 billion that schools will receive over the next three years.
However, there was nothing in his speech to suggest that the funding fears of headteachers and unions will be completely placated.
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The government admitted in January that average per-pupil school funding has fallen in real terms since 2010 - despite years of claims that spending is at record levels.
In some areas, funding pressures within budgets for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are so severe that local authorities are reportedly facing potential bankruptcy.
Figures published by the Department for Education earlier this year showed that per-pupil funding remained “broadly flat” between 2010-11 and 2015-16. It then fell by 4.2 per cent over 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The funding subsequently increased by 1.9 per cent to the current level. In 2019-20, average per-pupil school funding stands at £5,940. This compares with £6,050 in 2010-11 in today’s terms - representing a 1.8 per cent decrease.
