Early Learning Programme Flops 1

Mike Denham Burning Our Money

Resignation no longer gets rid of them

Nursery education is meant to be one of the most cost effective ways of raising overall attainment. Head start, flying start, whatever snappy name the lobbyists and politicos hang on it, it’s money well spent.

So you can understand why Labour has pumped money in, launching a raft of programmes and extending free nursery education to all three-year olds. So far it’s cost us £21bn.

The trouble is, it’s flopped.

New research from Durham University’s Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre reveals that children’s development and skills as they enter primary school are no different today than they were in 2000. No progress at all.

Naturally the government’s response is to shrug it off. Minister for Children Beverley Hughes (the one who was forced to resign from the Home Office over the scandal of visas being issued on false papers) says:

"Early indications are that this investment is improving outcomes for children. However, as the author of this report acknowledges, it is still too early to measure this with any great authority."

I’m just listening to the author of the report on BBC R4 Today. She actually says we should have seen some measurable changes by now, and we haven’t.

So what’s gone wrong?

Nobody seems quite sure, but I think we can guess:

Great Leap Forward- this is yet another top-down plan imposed from above- eg the boilerplate early childhood curriculum
Social engineering disguised as education
Unintended consequences- we already know Sure Start has been a disaster, making life worse for the most disadvantaged kids (eg see this blog)

£21bn.

There are no changes in prospect: as always, the Commissars’ response to inconvenient evidence is to press on regardless. Just like Stalingrad.

Mike Denham

Mike is a former Treasury economist who worked extensively on public spending and fiscal analysis during the 1970s and early 1980s. His work included cost benefit appraisal of public projects, analysis of public sector cost inflation and value for money studies.

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http://vindicovindico.blogspot.com Vindico

As Milton Friedman said, “there are four ways to spend money: when you spend your own money on yourself and seek best value; you spend your own money on somebody else and seek lower price over quality; when you spend somebody elses money on yourself and seek quality over price; and when you spend somebody else’s money on somebody else and you are concerned with neither price nor quality”. So very true. But as somebody once said – just be thankful we don’t get the government we pay for!!