CEP election analysis
Schools
Executive summary
- Since the pandemic, there has been declining educational achievement, increasing absence from school and worsening mental health among school-age children. Educational inequalities have widened.
- Poorer education outcomes have disastrous longer-term consequences both for
children and for society as a whole. There is a strong relationship between cognitive
skills and economic growth.
- Teachers are the most important school resource. But there are big problems of
recruitment and retention likely deriving from relatively low teacher pay and a higher
workload than in many other countries.
- There are some promising low-cost policies that may help to address current
challenges, including for example schemes recruiting undergraduates as tutors that
have led many to consider a teaching career.
- The bottom line however is that schools in England, and the UK as a whole, need
greater investment. Failure to do so puts economic growth in jeopardy as well as
worsening social mobility.
1 July 2024 Paper Number CEPEA064
This CEP election analysis is published under the centre's Education programme.
This publication comes under the following theme: Determinants of school performance: Resources, pedagogy, workforce and peers, Inequality and social mobility