from Financial Times, Top 1,000 Schools 19th March 2010
mtmconsulting has been featured in the FT’s top 1,000 Schools supplement over the weekend. The supplement, which includes a league table of the country’s best performing schools – based on 2009 A level results – has referenced mtm’s Independent Education Sector Report 2010 in an article ‘Is Class Size Really That Critical’.
The article, by Liz Lightfoot, notes how over the past thirty years the average pupil : teacher ratio in indepedent schools has fallen from 12.6 to 8.3, while in the state sector, while it has also dropped, the same ratio is still as high as 20.6 in secondary schools.
The article goes on to cite mtm: “the most comprehensive study of trends, The Independent Education Sector Report 2010, last autumn by mtmconsulting, the business consultancy, warned of the need for schools to re-examine the ‘sacred cow’ of class reduction.” While the falling ratio of pupils to teachers has effectively increased teaching costs by up to 50%, “it would be hard to argue that the quality of education in schools had improved by an equivalent 50% over the same period, their productivity has demonstrably not”.
mtm’s Sector Report looked at class sizes against a background of falling affordability caused by rising fees and recession, and suggested that the need to cut costs is likely to be one of the significant factors for school business strategies over the next decade.
The same supplement goes on to soundcheck the author of the Sector Report, Gavin Humphreys, in another article: ‘Death, taxes and Rising Fees’. This article suggests that the independent schools sector is worried about the Conservatives proposal to introduce Swedish-style free schools in the UK that might attract prospective or current pupils away from the fee-paying sector. Gavin notes that such schools may also force school-fees upwards if these free schools use “their freedom to pay more to attract the best teachers”.
“In the immediate future”, Gavin is quoted, “the rate of fee increase is likely to stay close to the rate of salary rises at 2 to 3 per cent, rather than 5 to 6 per cent.”
The supplement is available to download from the Financial Times website.
To learn more about our publications and our work with independent schools marketing, school business strategies, and research for schools, please contact mtm.
