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Today @educationgov published a misleading blog accusing @tes of publishing ‘an article making inaccurate claims’ about its £1bn school building pledge. We entirely refute the department’s inaccurate assertions https://twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1278362513487298562
According to @educationgovuk our article here ‘wrongly says’ it had ‘not been clear that the money will be spent from 2021’ https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-school-building-funding-cut-again
But the original @education press release said the school building programme would ‘start in 2020-21 with the first 50 projects, supported by over £1bn in funding’ clearly implying that the funding would begin in 2020-21
In fact further inquiries with @educationgovuk revealed this was not the case at all. When we asked for more details we were told that the new projects ‘will not affect the budget for 2020-21. Instead they will be part of plans for capital budgets in future years’
The misleading @educationgovuk blog goes on to assert that @tes was ‘incorrect’ to say that the first £1 billion would be spread out over “an unspecified number of future years”
But this was only based on exactly what @educationgovuk had told us, that the projects backed by more than £1bn were actually ‘part of plans for capital budgets in future years’
The blog’s final misleading assertion is confusing as it claims we have been inaccurate about a £130m cut but goes on to confirm it using slightly different words.
Here is what @educationgovuk told us so you can judge for yourselves.
