Second best

Sir Richard Handover was asked to review the financial management of the state school system. His report, due to be published soon, was leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

According to the newspaper, yesterday, the report is a damning indictment of waste and mismanagement, with excessive amounts paid for equipment and maintenance. Sir Richard concludes that 6% of the educational budget could be cut without damaging outcomes.

His most striking recommendation was that almost a quarter of the money spent on teaching assistants could be cut, because the contribution of the assistants there was negligible. (There are currently more than 181,000 of these assistants, and 40,000 posts could be abolished in his view. He also suggests that a further 30,000 posts should have further training to raise their contribution to equality with teaching colleagues.

A study by the London Institute of Education earlier this month found that teaching assistants did help to reduce the stress encountered by teachers, but did not boost pupil progress. In some cases the presence of assistants actually held back progress.

So it should be possible to reduce stress by introducing fewer changes and fewer forms, and thus abolish any of these posts. Where they essential educationally, then further training should be given.

To no-one's surprise the unions involved and Ed Balls, rejected the report without countering any of the points made by Sir Richard.