The latest studies in the field of education conducted in England in the fall of 2023 - summer of 2024 are depressing. It turns out that almost a hundred schools are facing the threat of closure! The reason is quite respectful, although dramatic: there are almost no students left, it is easier for the authorities to take children tens of kilometers away than to maintain a whole staff of teachers for a dozen students.
Even worse is the reason why this happens: due to the low birth rate, the number of schoolchildren in subsequent years will decline by about 0.8-1.1% each year. For example, last academic year, 7.7 million young Britons went to school (+270 thousand foreign students of private schools, but this is a slightly different story), but in 2028, they are expected to be 600 thousand less. The most dramatic situation is expected to be in London schools, as well as in the counties of north-east England.
Local activists, the Church of England and the educational community are sounding the alarm, but the only way the authorities can respond to the steep peak of demography is a reduction in school funding.
