SCHOOLS will be forced to make cuts as rising costs will likely outstrip school funding under government spending proposals, a think tank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’s annual report on education spending said the plan to increase teacher pay by 2.8 per cent for 2025/26 will leave “schools struggling to cover their costs without making savings.”

It estimated a 3.6 per cent rise in costs for state schools in England with a 2.8 per cent real-terms rise in state school funding per pupil for 2025/26 under the proposals.

“If these projections are accurate, then core school budgets will feel very tight in 2025/26,” the report said, describing the pay rise as “small” compared to inflation.

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Schools have no capacity to make savings without cutting educational provision.

“The government must address this problem head on and ensure that our schools and colleges get the funding they desperately need.”