SCHOOLS are having to cut teachers while being forced to blow taxpayers’ cash on installing expensive solar panels, bombshell research reveals.
Critics blasted Labour ministers for sinking funds “into a Net Zero money pit” rather than prioritising children.
Ed Miliband’s GB Energy is splurging a whopping £100 million on installing solar panels at 255 schools.
But 100 of these schools have seen the number of teachers they employ fall over the past year.
And 38 of these schools have a total of 68 vacant teacher posts they are trying to fill as Britain struggles with a teacher shortage.
The alarming stats were collected by Tory MP Nick Timothy.
He accused ‘Red Ed’ and No10 of spending money on frivolous Net Zero vanity projects while schools struggle to hire teachers they desperately need.
Mr Timothy told The Sun on Sunday: “This says everything about Labour’s priorities.
“Schools are cutting staff numbers after the Government increased National Insurance Contributions and imposed a pay deal without the funds to finance it.
“But Ed Miliband is throwing hundreds of millions at solar panels and climate action plans for the very same schools.
“Kids need teachers, not virtue signalling.”
Mr Miliband’s Net Zero department announced it is spending a staggering £100 million on solar panels and energy efficiency measures for 255 schools.
This cash could have paid for 2,037 teachers on the average salary of £49,084 a year.
Or it would have been enough to pay for 3,159 newly qualified teachers earning £31,650 in England – excluding London.
Or it could have paid for 4,227 teaching assistants paid a salary of £23,656 per year.
There are 100 primary and secondary schools covered by the solar panel programme that saw their teacher headcount fall between November 2023 to November 2024, according to the research.
Taken together, they have lost 323 teachers during that time.
Money for solar panels comes from a different government fund than the pot which pays for teachers.
But the shocking statistics spark questions about whether No10 is using taxpayers’ cash on the right priorities.
The Government estimates that a typical school could save £25,000 a year with solar panels.
Even if the 250 schools do save a combined £6.25 million a year because of this programme, then it will still take 16 years to recover the £100m cost of installing the solar panels.
Meanwhile, schools say they could desperately do with extra cash to hire more teachers.
A government spokeswoman said: “This government is delivering on its promise to recruit 6,500 more teachers with over 2,300 more secondary and special schoolteachers in classrooms this year, over 32,000 new trainees beginning training and one of the best retention rates since 2010.
“The GB Energy solar panel programme is helping schools slash energy bills by thousands of pounds every year and should pay for themselves twice over across their 30-year lifespan.
“All of those savings are kept in schools’ budgets which go straight back into children’s education, paying for new textbooks, better resources – and of course teachers.”
