Over the last year the debate about education in our country has been dominated by concerns over budget cuts, staff reductions, and “underfunding”. Yet this week’s new and highly respected OECD report on global education reveals, perhaps surprisingly, that the UK spends a higher proportion of its national income on education than any OECD nation — yes, including the US, Finland, Canada, and Germany. Education ministers and the Treasury will relish using this statistic to beat back the critics of public sector austerity. So does this mean that claims of “underfunding” are just misguided whingeing? Because underlying this impressive headline statistic are some details which should give UK…

Source: The Times September 12, 2017 11:03 UTC