UK education productivity 'flat'

Government reforms led to 50,000 more classroom assistants

The billions of pounds spent on education in the UK might have led to a greater improvement in exam results, statisticians have said.

The Office for National Statistics made what they called a productivity or value for money calculation, dividing cash inputs by GCSE results.

They said productivity fell 0.7% a year between 1999 and 2006 after an increase of 2.1% a year between 1996 and 1999.

Ministers said the measure was crude and did not reflect wider achievements.

'Hopes for more'

The figures showed that productivity rose slightly overall, at 0.1% between 1996 and 2006.

This is because although the period has seen year on year improvements to GCSE results, with more passes and higher grades awarded, government spending increased dramatically.

In 1996 the government spent £27.2bn in the UK on education, by 2006 yearly spending had risen to £49.5bn, the ONS said.

ONS chief executive Joe Grice said: "This is a broadly flat productivity performance".

"We spent a large extra amount on education - that is what these figures confirm," he added

"Did we get a proportionately similar increase in the value from that money?"

"Was that good enough? That is a matter of interpretation. We get a broadly commensurate increase in the value for the money that was spent."

But, he added, overall "we would be hoping to get more".

You could actually increase productivity by increasing the number of children in a class for example Jim Knight Schools minister

The findings come against a backdrop of big increases in education spending over the period and a fall in the numbers on school rolls.

Reforms designed to reduce teachers' workloads, allowing them to focus on teaching rather than paperwork, has led to the introduction of more than 50,000 support staff in England's schools since 1999.

The ONS said it was not possible to say how much administrative work teachers had been doing without being paid before the reforms were introduced.

A spokesman for the Department of Children, Schools and Families said it did not agree with the methodology behind the research.

Schools minister Jim Knight said measuring productivity did not take into account measures such as the increased funding for special educational needs and the 7,000 extended schools now in operation.

'Crude measure'

He said: "You could actually increase productivity by increasing the number of children in a class for example.

"The crucial point for us, parents and teachers is to improve the education of every child and thanks to us consistently prioritising education spending, we now have more teachers, better buildings, better teachers' pay and the highest ever exam results.

"We are pushing ahead even further with personalisation and one-to-one tuition for every child."

Shadow childrens secretary Michael Gove said the research showed education was getting worse under Gordon Brown.

He added: "Only last week the evidence showed that standards were falling for children in their early years.

"Now we have hard proof from the government's own watchdog that extra spending isn't getting the results the nation deserves."

Liberal Democrat education spokesman David Laws said the figures were very worrying.

"While education productivity figures are an extremely crude measure, they emphasise that good education requires more than simply extra cash."